My Mantra

I found this wonderful picture shortly after I'd been given my amazing birthday present of a new Digital SLR camera! This has now become my "DINKY" (double income no kids yet!) motto!

Snow Storm in Stockholm

With Easter weekend approaching we really wanted to make the most of some time off work and travel somewhere exotic. Having endured almost seven months of gruelling winter, our hearts were set on somewhere warm and sunny. So were everybody else's by the looks of things as tickets to any even slightly warm destinantion were completely exhorbitant!

Piece of cake - we thought - we'll go somewhere slightly cooler and pick flights up for a complete bargain! Well... we did just that - but we didn't really take into account that Stockholm is one of the most expensive European cities! It's not often that you travel from London and gawp at the prices of things, declaring them way more expensive than home!

We left London early on Good Friday (Sarah sulking because it was now glaringly obvious that we were not going to make 3pm Mass... again!) and Just with a very sore throat and not much of a voice. We caught a taxi from the airport and were astounded at the fluency of the English our taxi driver spoke. It slowly dawned on us that this was going to be a relatively easy weekend - not once did we battle to make ourselves understood - in fact most Swedes spoke better English than we do! They had just had three days of solid snow so the landscape was beautifully crisp and white!

Our hotel was stunning and our harbour view was well worth it (hint hint - one point to Sarah!)
We had a whole host of little luxuries and most importantly - it was warm!!

By the time we'd unpacked and called Bron (whose due date was fast approaching) just to check on the much anticipated arrival of our nephew or niece, it was already getting dark (around 3pm!) We braved the cold (it was around 4 degrees under) and went for a walk through the very swish shopping streets. Everything was closed much to my delight! Here is a staunch Catholic country that takes Good Friday seriously and doesn't use it as a money-making opportunity to sell whatever it can to consumers who view this weekend as an opportunity to drink until they drop!!

Having said that - we were starving... so popped to TGI Fridays (quite ironic I thought) and had a bite to eat. Our waiter looked like he'd just rolled off the face of Tatler... hang on, so did the lady clearing away the glasses and we'd soon discover, so did the odd beggar on the street. Stockholm is a city of outrageously beautiful people!! They're not all blonde and blue-eyed, actually there were quite a few brunettes - but they are all STUNNING!!

We spent the next day exploring all the historic treasures that this stunning city has to offer. Stockholm is actually made up of fourteen islands that are linked by beautiful bridges. How quaint and different for a European capital! This endearing fact does make it a little tricky to navigate one's way around the city to find the various tourist hotspots and so we found ourselves doing alot of walking (not necessarily a bad thing as it helped keep us warm!)



We visited the Royal Palace. Perhaps it was a bad idea, as we'd been to Windsor Catle the weekend before and let's face it - the Brits know how to do castles!! It wasn't anything wow and a slight anti-climax after we'd been waiting outside in the freezing cold for an hour for the palace to open. Many rooms were under construction and we gained more pleasure from seeing into the intimate details of a Swedish builder's life (what chocolates they'd consumed and how big their shoes were) than we did in learning about the historic adventures of the Swedish monarchy.

The Changing of The Guards at the Royal Palace

A Sweet Little Statue in Gamla Stan

Our next stop was more of an investment decision than anything else - an investment to protect our ears and faces! I'd always found the little wooly hats with pieces covering your ears very unattractive! I now take all that back and declare them to be the most wonderful invention! Just and I duly found the "tourist trap" that sold these hats - right outside the Palace (of course!) We endured hearing the shop owner convince some other easy-target tourists that these hats were handmade and took at least a day each to make! We left the shop with empty pockets but warm ears and cheeks!

Our Cool Little Hats

Stockholm has a really awesome Modern Art Museum (Moderna Museet) and believe it or not I managed to twist Just's arm into going. There was a crazy Any Warhol exhibition complete with twenty mini-movies and comfy couches scattered all over the the exhibit. We marvelled at a Salvador Dali original and decided that Monet was probably more our style. There was an awesome piece of work that from far, looked like a work map. Moving closer towards it you could see that there were newspaper cuttings of people's faces that made up the map and little numbers to reference them to events that had happened all over the world. So for example, if you looked at England you may see an elderly looking man and then trace it back to "Mr Darwin disappears in a canoe accident, London 2003". Some of the descriptions were quite mundane which made the whole piece really quite intriguing.

One of my favourites was the piece below - which could probably sum up some of the suppers I've tried to make in my life!

The only problem with it being so very chilly is that it's very tempting just to spend heaps of time indoors drinking hot chocolate and sitting next to the fire. We'd been in regular touch with Ev and Tash who were staying at our house while getting ready to fly to SA for their wedding and I'd turned green with envy at hearing about the snow in London. It hardly ever snows in our home city and now, when it was, and heavy snow at that - we were even further up north than they were and although the ground was covered in powder, we'd yet to see any fall!

The Beautiful Cobbled Streets of Gamla Stan (Old Town)

Our next adventure was quite a smelly one! One of Just's colleagues had studied in Stockholm and had recommended one of her favourite old haunts - a restaurant called Garlic & Shots. We're always keen to venture away from the tourist spots and even though the concierge at our hotel looked at us a bit "skeef" when we told him where we wanted to go, we would not be swayed! We were literally the only non-Swedes in this restaurant and even had a viking-look-alike at the table next to us!

Garlic & Shots as the name would suggest specialises in everything garlic. From garlic beer to garlic ice-cream - this place has it all. It was a dingy little pub-type place that eminated years upon years of the stinky substance. I'm making it sound rather horrid - which it really was not! Our food came heavily coated in garlic and as much as we'd wanted to try the garlic ice-cream, by the end of our meal, we just could not stomach it! Just and I became slightly delirious after our garlic overload - so much so that Just googled "garlic overdose" when we got back to our hotel just to make sure he would recognise the symptoms should they became life-threatening! The poor person who cleaned our room the next morning - it must have been awful for them!!

We awoke on our last morning to see the most welcoming sight of little bits of white flying across our window. We had the wonderful advantage of being able to take pics of the snow and the harbour from the warmth of our hotel room! I wasn't content with this however and soon Just and I were frollicking romantically in the snow storm. It was white, wet and wonderful. Yes, it stung when it got in your eyes and when it fell heavily it felt like little pin pricks on your face - but did we care?! Not a chance!!

The beautiful snow patterns on the water of the harbour

Freezing but Smiling!

Snowball Fight!

So it was that we left Stockholm feeling 100% satisfied - we'd done the snow thing and seen some wonderful sights. We left having the highest respect for the Swedes - what a wonderfully welcoming and hospitable city! Will we be back? Well, that depends on whether HSBC will grant us a large personal, unsecured loan!

Quick Jaunt to Lille

We'd planned our trip to Stockholm in Easter and Just had applied for a Schengen visa through the French embassy as they are by far the most easy-going. However - this meant that we had to enter France before we could legitimately enter Stockholm. Oh no! What a pity!

We thought of driving to Calais and back one Saturday morning but the opportunity to spend a night in my favourite country on earth was way too tempting... and so we found ourselves catching an early Eurostar to Lille. This was our first Eurostar experience and also our first taste of Kings Cross St Pancras station. Despite all the flack the station had received (they forgot to install ATM machines - but focussed on some gorgeous shops instead!) - it was quite a stunning experience! The station is made predominantly of glass and so the natural light is quite amazing!

What a pleasure - it was a mere hop, skip and a jump and we found ourselves in the city of Lille. Ok, it wasn't quite Paris and it wasn't on the other end of the scale as a quaint little French village, but it was French and it was rich in culture and wonderful!

We stayed in a hotel walking distance from the Eurostar station which proved very handy, especially when we learned that there weren't all too many taxis available in Lille. It's actually quite a large city and has a huge shopping mall attached to the station - but the real beauty of this city lies, as with most European cities, in the district known as the Old Town.




We spent a very chilled Saturday afternoon on a sidewalk cafe enjoying their local beer. Lille's proximity to Belgium means that they're very much into their beer which seemed quite unusual since we were expecting some fine French red wines. This was also the first weekend with my new camera (evident from the lack of technical genius in the photos) - but presented a wonderful opportunity for camera and I to become acquanited.

We stumbled across a protest march (something about Green Peace I think) - which just confirmed to us that we were in fact in France. We also stumbled across (not so accidentally this time) a waffle and ice-cream shop and obviously had to have a quick bite.

We awoke on Sunday morning to a really miserable day - howling winds and soggy rain. We endured a minute or two of madness when we considered changing our return Eurostar ticket to earlier in the day, but fortunately we'd bought the cheapest non-refundable, non-exchangeable tickets and the conductor told us in no uncertain terms that we'd be staying until our original return time of 5pm.

Oh, how glad I am that we did! Deciding to pull ourselves together and get on with it, despite the miserable weather turned out to be the best decision of the day! We visited the weekly market and were hypnotised by all the different goods on sale. There were fruit and vegetables (why do they always look so much more appealing across the Channel?!) clothes, kitchen goods, fabric and food galore. This being in the slightly rougher part of town, we didn't hang about and we soon moved on to the National Museum of Fine Arts.

Wow! It was really quiet and we practically had the museum to ourselves. We even got to see an original Claude Monet! There was such a lovely laid back feel to the city and everyone seemed to be soaking up the last few moments of the weekend. We too soaked it all up right until our 5pm train back to London.

I think I may actually be rather sad when Just no longer needs Schengen visas...

Cottage in the Country

Two weary little travellers stepped off the plane with a whopping 73kg's of luggage between them! No wonder Dad and Sue were so exhausted!! :) We were spoilt rotten with such stunning Christmas pressies and packages from our family in SA. Just's mom very cleverly popped some amazing treats into "My African Stocking" - just to ensure that there's always the right amount of longing for home coursing through my veins!

Yes - can you believe it?!! Dad and Sue hand carried a potjie pot all the way here for us!! What a treat!!

As exciting as the bright lights of London may be - they definitely aren't very relaxing - and relaxation was what we were after. So we rented a little cottage in a small village called Great Rollright. Great in stature - it was not - but in charm and character - it was most definitely!!

The owner was a rather foreboding Mrs Wingle (or something like that) - who read us the riot act of how to use the microwave - to health and safety in the bathroom and what to do with the heaters. It always makes me laugh when people introduce themselves as Mrs or Mr X - and I think Dad feels the same way as he took great delight in introducing himself by his christian name!!

Now filled trepidation and a fear of breaking the central heating and being left to freeze to death while the boiler man made his way to rescue us - there was only one thing for it - time to build a fire!!

We located a gorgeous little farm shop that was soon to become our sole supplier of wood, kindling and organic foodstuffs. The boys kept themselves occupied for hours, engrossed in the progress of our main source of heat while the girls hid away in the kitchen, concocting some yummy stews and roasts to keep the winter chills at bay.

We spent many happy hours reading and chilling together. When we plucked up the courage to venture outside, we enjoyed the many treats the gorgeous city of Oxford and the picturesque village of Stow-On-The-Wold held in store.

Susie keeps her distance from some rather fresh smelling pheasant.

A shining example of Window Tax... let's turn to Wikipedia for an explanation:

This tax was introduced in 1696 as a replacement for the Hearth Tax and was often levied with the House Tax. It was repealed in 1851 when it was replaced by House Duty. The tax was worked out from a scale of bands based on the number of windows in the house. In 1696 all houses were charged at 2s (shillings), properties with 10-20 windows paid 4s and those with more than 20 windows paid 8s. In 1747 the charges were: 10-14 windows at 6d per window, 15-19 windows at 9d, and 20 or more windows at 1s. By 1825 houses with less than 8 windows became exempt. The taxpayer was usually the occupier rather than the owner and they often attempted to camouflage or block up the windows to avoid payment.


Stow was stunning - we popped into quaint little pubs and shops and soaked up the real English village feel!Unfortunately, Just and I both had financial year ends looming - so we had to make a speedy return to London. We spent the last few nights of Dad and Sue's visit being treated like kings - coming home to scrumptious gourmet meals and more catching up and bondy moments.

Our First Christmas in London

Some of my earliest memories of England trail back to 1986 when I experienced my first English Christmas. My darling mum has always said that a Northern Hemisphere Christmas is a "real Christmas". Whereas I don't fully agree with this sentiment as I think that the real meaning of Christmas is all too easily lost - I do sort of see what she means!

So, this being our first London Christmas together we had to do it "properly". It amazed yet saddened me how Christmas was interpreted in this city we have come to call home. News bulletins were flooded with startling statistics on the average spend (mainly on booze) per household in the UK - enough to feed an entire African country - but there was very little mention of Bethlehem or the birth of Jesus.

That being said - I did insist on getting a real Christmas tree this year. Every evening on the way home from work I'd seen the pavement scattered with pine needles and become all nostalgic... this was a city where people walked home with their own trees - how beautifully European! So, one chilly Saturday morning, Just and I popped to our favourite florist and purchased our very own little baby. This pic is taken post grumbling of heavy tree and eina pine needles sticking into precious little hands...

Like Mother like daughter, they say... which is usually a good thing but not when I saw myself repeating the very things that were the bain of my life and wondering why Just wasn't relishing every minute of it! We threaded popcorn onto long pieces of thread and draped it over the lower branches. This created a stunning effect, but now causes my darling husband to break into a sweat whenever I suggest we make some fresh popcorn!

We'd slightly overestimated the dimensions of our lounge when making our tree purchase and so, for the next three weeks we were cramped into a corner as our tree took over!

Stockings are very much a necessity in our house - and are most definitely NOT reserved just for little children...

Londoners are very fond of wreaths and I'd spent many a happy walk home eyeing out everyone's different Christmas wreaths. You get the "family heirlooms" that are on their last legs but will still be used for another twenty odd years as they are a family tradition. Then there are the "Liberty" brand wreaths: a very swish department store in central London. They look stunning but could once again feed an entire African country... Then you get the "au naturele" version - which we went for. They'll only last one season but have a lovely fresh pine-needle fragrance to them. They also need to be watered which can lead to strange watermarks running down your front door!!

Wow! You get real miseltoe in London!! It's actually a weed/pest - but all the local florists sell it. We dutifully scattered many little bunches around our house to surprise our unsuspecting Christmas guests!

So now that our house had been satisfactorily "Christmasified" we were eagerly anticipating the arrival of our Christmas guests: Liez and Doris were arriving within three hours of eachother at Victoria coach station.

We hadn't seen Liez since Naxos in the summer - so it was completely awesome to catch up with her again! Once the little darling had safely left the bus, we whisked her away for some hot chocolate and mince pies in a pub... (we were in London afterall!)

Friends Reunited!

In between Liez's and Doris's arrival, we went for a brisk stroll through Green Park and eyed-out Lizzie's Christmas tree at Buckingham Palace...

All the preparations had been well worth it - we now had our special Christmas guests safely installed in our miniscule abode and were ready for some cheery celebrations. We kicked off with a welcome fondue...

The next few photos were actually taken early one afternoon - you wouldn't think it to look at them - but then it does get dark at about 3pm in December! We went to see the lights on Regent Street and stopped for a warming pint at a very gothic pub. The door to the loo was disguised as a bookshelf - very cool!

We spent a very special Christmas Eve at midnight mass at St Paul's Cathedral. Aware of the fact that it would probably be rather chilly inside this beautiful cathedral we armed ourselves with a hearty fish 'n chips supper beforehand.

The City was so quiet and almost eery as we drove through central London. It was very cool to drive past Trafalgar square in something other than a bus or taxi! The service was beautiful - and we were very blessed to have the Archbishop of Canterbury preach to us.

Merry Christmas!!

We arose slightly sleepy but ever so glad that we'd been to such a wonderful church service. Ev and Tash joined us for Christmas dinner and even though we ate slightly late (ducks seem to take a lot longer to cook than any cookbook suggests!) We ate, drank and made merry - very happy that we could share this wonderful time of year with our special friends!

Aaaah... some of our guests took the miseltoe VERY seriously!

Glasses drained and bellies full - Ev munched his miniature Christmas cake with much joy!

Boxing Day was a wonderful opportunity to take a little walk through the lanes and walk off some of our Christmas calories...

It was very sad to say goodbye to our darling guests. We'd spent some wonderful moments together and had so much fun. But we didn't have too long to mope about - as our very next guests were already on an aeroplane heading for Heathrow!

Christmas Markets in Cologne

Wow! The Germans sure know how to celebrate Christmas!! With this in mind, Just, David ,Celeste and I headed for Cologne to soak up some German Christmas spirit. It's amazing what some Christmas cheer can do to a city! Fairy lights were strung from all the trees and decorations galore lined the streets! Our first stop was the Cathedral in Cologne. What a beautiful building! It is so tall that it creates a bit of a wind tunnel (hence the rather wind swept photos) - but is a true example of exquisite Catholic architecture.

It is situated in the main square and is right next to our soon to become favourite Christmas market. Cologne actually has seven Christmas markets in total - and when Celeste and I broke the news to our husbands that we planned on seeing all seven - they were rather horrified! However, the old saying "The way to a man's heart is through his tummy" is most definitely true!! We soon learned that apart from selling beautiful handmade Christmas presents and decorations - these Christmas markets also sell the most delicious food!!

We snacked on potato rosti's with apple purée, pork steaks coated in a honey glaze and cushioned in a warm bread roll, sausages galore (bratwurst, bierwurst, shinkenwurst, bockwurst, knackwurst - you name it, we munched it!) and grapes and strawberries enveloped in a crunchy sugar coating. Oh yes and beer - lots and lots of beer (starting from 11 am!!)

Some crazy people wore t-shirts and shorts in December in freezing Germany!!

While others wore thick winter coats:

The Christmas decorations on sale were absolutely phenomenal! It suited us perfectly as this was to be our first Christmas in London and we had absolutely no decorations... Just did have to put his foot down occasionally as I tended to get a bit carried away and could quite easily shop from noon til night! Hah! But it was worth it - look how pretty the market is all lit up:

In true genius style Celeste spotted a train that did the entire Christmas market circuit - so we hopped on and hopped off this gorgeous little (being the operative word) device. Some of us were less than impressed by the pan-pipes music that accompanied the trip - but it was all in the spirit of things!

After a heavy day of shopping - there was only one thing for it:

We even managed to squeeze in some non-Christmas market sightseeing: Father Christmas suspended from the roof of a building, an ice-cream splotched onto the corner of a sky-scraper and then a large barrel of beer that lured us into a wonderful German-style pub called a Brauhuas:

Well, it was our last afternoon in this wonderful city so we could hardly say no to our last German lunch! We stumbled upon a really rustic brauhaus and were reassured that this was "the real thing" by the complete lack of English we could hear within the meandering passages of this traditional German watering hole. Their ordering system was a complete novelty to us: we were presented with a beer mat and as our waiter brought us our first round of beers he drew four little sticks on the mat... he continued to do this with every round we ordered and when things wrapped up and we were all feeling rather rosy-cheeked and cheerful he remarked that we were very different to the locals as four people would easily fill two beer mats with little sticks - not our measly three quarters of a mat!!