Chillin' with my homies.

OK..Well maybe not in the dodgey Americana gangster sense but in the sense of hanging out with my family who are over in London at the moment. My Uncle Wayne and Auntie Denise (Dad's brother) have been over in London this week and we managed to catch up and do some cool Londonish stuff. I have included some of the photos and a quick comment on each where appropriate. They leave tomorrow for a 5 week tour of the UK and Ireland then we are hoping to catch up with them again later somewhere in Europe after our European tour...Maybe in Salzburg.
Rachael has only two weeks working to go and I have four. Jodi Macca arrives next weekend so we are excited about that as well.


THE GANG OUT THE FRONT OF 'LES MISERABLES'

We caught up for dinner and a show on Wednesday night. I am not generally a 'musical' fan and find the whole concept of singing in sentences quite humorous despite the fact that often the storyline is supposed to be serious. As a consequence I was not excited by the prospect of seeing "Let's be Miserable" (as I called it), however the fact that I was not a fan worked in my favour because I did not know the storyline and found the whole show excellent and very suprising (when only 2% of the characters are left alive at the end and there is still a sense of hope then its a job well done). If you haven't seen it I give it a big wrap. I admit that my recommendation may be a little late given that it has been running for 20 years and 51 million people have seen it. In fact, lets face it, I was the only one who hasn't seen it.

RACHAEL AND DENISE (HAMPTON COURT PALACE)

Saturday we got out to Hampton Court Palace and enjoyed a day of walking in the footsteps of past kings and queens.

THE CLOCK

Apparently people would travel a long way to see this clock in the past because it was so unique. It tells you the time, day, month, star signs and lunar calendar (for working out tides) as well. Do you ever wish you could go back in time and just be famous and impress everyone with some really pathetic piece of technology like a CD player or a cheap digital watch...No...Me neither.

A WRONG TURN IN THE GARDEN MAZE


WAYNE AND DENISE IN THE GARDENS

Very impressive gardens but I would still be interested in seeing a backyard blitz style of show here. In fact I think that would be a really good episode. You take them somewhere to a garden that is just fantastic and see what they can do in 24 hours then you bring back the queen or someone and see if they are impressed or just a little ticked off that they ripped out the 200 year old hedge and replaced the pebble paths with some crazy paving.

RACHAEL AND A WATER FEATURE


UGLY DUCKLING AND SWAN


SWANS POSING FOR A PHOTO


SUNDIAL AND A POSH POSE

The sundial was conveniently located in the shadow of the building...Lucky they had that impressive clock out front.

ROYALTY

That's my best royal pose...Any princesses interested then give me a call and Ill see what we can work out.

GARDEN WALKWAY

I was thinking of something like this for the driveway dad...Why don't you get onto it and Ill tell you what I think when I get home.

ENGLAND IN SPRING

Spring is here but the weather is still like a Melbourne day. It never rains though, just kind of drizzles. Come to think of it the sun is never fully out either. The weather here has no commitment...Its just really average.

Well, that's a quick look at what we got up to. Hope everyone back home is well. We miss you all and are looking forward to seeing you all in July. 20 working days left for me - but who's counting.

Ben