Seeing double (or triple)

Tom and I are always on the look out for a good business opportunity, and since our engagement, an opening has come to our attention - the UK market for engagement cards. In what you might expect to be a saturated sector, there is clearly a lack of choice, and this was illustrated by the number of duplicate engagement cards that we received. In a population of 21 cards, we received duplicates of one design, and triplicates of two designs! I'm not even sure if triplicates is a word!! Our sample may be biased of course - obviously we have friends and family with consistently good taste.


And here's a photo of the rest of the cards:



If you look carefully you'll see that I'm also displaying the envelope that godson-Jake's card came in, because he coloured it so beautifully!

I also wanted to say a blog thank you to everyone who bought us lovely gifts! I'm not going to list names individually, but we were very grateful for everything that we received. Perhaps Tom would have proposed sooner if he knew we would be showered with such niceties? There is one gift that I wanted to share with you all - today we received in the post a fantastic box of goodies from a one of my university friends. Each gift was individually wrapped and labelled as either being 'For Him because...' or 'For Her because....'. Here's want was inside...

• A Yorkie for Him.. because they are not for girls!
• A wedding magazine for Her.. so that she can start to plan
• A bottle of bath soak and a face mask for Her.. because it's relaxing
• A box of champagne truffles for Him and Her.. because a bottle of real Champagne is too hard to post!

and finally.. (and this is the *most* appropriate)..

• A packet of ear plugs for him.. because she talks about the wedding 24/7!!!

Not only do I not stop talking about the wedding, but ear plugs will actually be really useful for us during next years Formula 1 Melbourne Grand Prix. We were also really pleased to get UK chocolate past customs! You know who you are and you made our day today with such a thoughtful gift - thank you very much!

Hurricane TomKat

A bizzare weather pattern hit England in late May and early June. The unforeseen whirlwind began in London before sweeping down to the south-west and then storming East Anglia. It travelled in a 2001 VW Polo and brought gifts from a land down under. It was called Hurricane TomKat...



Our two week visit to the UK felt more like two minutes. We flew in, rushed around to see as many people as possible, and then exited as fast we had arrived. However my cheeks still ache from the smiling, and my heart felt a little heavier when we had to say goodbye. There is nothing like moving to the other side of the world to make you realise how important your friends and family are, and nothing like coming home to see them to make you feel special :-) Thank you to everyone who rushed around as much as us to fit in some time together - whether we saw you for five minutes, two hours or a whole weekend, it was wonderful.

Our two weeks went something like this .. in rough order of appearance... Lucy and baby Dora for bathtime, Elian for lunch, Sally and Pippa for Sex and the City 2, Ed and Cat for tea at Royal Festival Hall, dinner with Mum and Dad Hague, playtime with Jake, Daisy and Emma, lunch with Grandma, yummy cake with Gordon and Margaret (godmother), engagement celebration dinner with Mum, Dad, and Toby plus one, loooooong drive to Norwich. Pause for breath because this is a long one... surprise engagement dinner with the in-laws: Peter, Sue, Claire, Steve, Anna, Kev, Emma, Ann and children Millie, Rosie, Jamie, Charlie, Emily and Ellie. Then the same cast to Bahman Zoo, then the North Norfolk coast, interpersed with phone calls with the lovely Louise and the very bendy Sally (who I miss dearly), as well as a lovely lunch with Marian and Florence. Next up was the most wonderful weekend - the wedding of Thushani and Andy at Sandhurst/Deepcut, and a fantastic fun-filled 36 hours with the uni friends I miss so much - Sarah & Matt, Pippa & Rowan, Sally, Fiona (no Alex unfortunately), Telfy & Ant, Katie & Chris, Ella and Andy and of course the happy couple themselves. The next day we were treated to cuddles with baby Amelie (see previous blog post for photos) before Sarah and Matt played hostess with the mostess for us in Raynes Park. To continue.. Wagamamas with Sarah and Matt, office day for Katie featuring more people than I can include here, then engagement drinks in London with reappearances from Sally, Fiona and Elian, bubbles from Phil and Kate, and fun times with Lynne and identical sister Claire, husband Mike plus a whole heap of Tom's friends. Next was ring shopping (yay!), Pizza Express with Lucy and Dora, then down to Poole, for more visits with Mum and Dad, as well as Marion, Di (loved the cakes thanks!), Grandma again, flat coke and a few tears with Jo and ten (yes, ten) wedding venues. A bit of shopping, much packing, calls to Gully and V&A, lots of goodbyes, then the coach to Heathrow. Phew.

If anyone is planning a similarly busy holiday in the near future, please can in touch and I can send you my spreadsheet to assist with planning!

If you're still reading after all of that, well done. I'll leave the rest of the story-telling to a selection of photos from our visit. We look forward to seeing you all again next year!

(L-R) Sarah, Pippa, Fiona, Katie, Tush, Sally, Sarah, Ella

The cutest couple! Thushani and Andy

Katie and Kate

Daisy

Me and my godson, Jake

Cake and ice cream on the North Norfolk coast

Ellie

Tom with his nieces and nephews - anticlockwise: Tom, Emily, Millie, Ellie, Charlie, Jamie, Rosie

The usual rough and tumble between the boys

The boxing kanagroos went down brilliantly!

.. as did Amelie's Kylie Koala!

The motley crew that I'm marrying into..!

Celebratory engagement cake made by Sue

Ellie has turned into a proper girly girl since we left!

Auntie Katie teaching Dora about the important things in life - Pizza Express

London engagement drinks - Sally, Claire, Katie, Fiona, Lynne, Elian

Bubbles with Phil and Kate

Ellie

Charlie

Emily, who has really grown up since we last saw her

Bonding time with Uncle Tom

PS Marian and Florence - I need to retrieve the photos of our lunch together from Peter and Sue's computer - I'll send them on to you shortly!

Amelie!

A special blog entry devoted to some photos of the lovely Amelie - thanks for the cuddles whilst we were in the UK! It was great to catch up with proud parents Ella and Andy too...

The writing's in the sand...

For possibly the first time since starting this blog, I’ve got writers block. I can’t think of a more interesting or creative way to share with you all some news that we’re very excited about... Tom has asked me to marry him!

After an introduction by mutual friends Alex and Fiona, the audition process for the roles of future-husband to Katie and future-wife to Tom was thorough. It began in May 2006 with a few drinks in our local pub in Swiss Cottage, followed by several call backs at various locations across north-west and central London. After this followed a screen test with the respective families (where resumes were scrutinised) and the meeting of friends (where references were sought)! The roles of boyfriend and girlfriend were quickly established and after one year were upgraded to a live-in arrangement to determine the potential for full-time roles in the future. After the surprising success of sharing a flat the size of a shoebox with each other and two flatmates, the audition process went on location, to a one-bed flat around the corner. Shared finances were the next test, and within 3 years of meeting a joint mortgage had been signed for our first house purchase. Surely this is a greater commitment than marriage? Perhaps not to Tom, to whom the story was not yet complete, and so the audition process moved overseas – halfway around the world in fact, and after four years of wonderful courtship, Tom proposed on a beach in Western Australia, exactly nine thousand and forty three miles from the place where it all began.

After much family expectation and a scripting reminder from sister-Anna that the five little words he needed to say started with ‘Katie’ and ended in ‘me?’, Tom found the words with impeccable timing – just one day before our first return visit to the UK. The place was the deserted beach of Bunker Bay in Western Australia, and it was during a sunny early morning walk that Tom popped the question by writing, “Katie, will you marry me?” in the sand. After my immediate acceptance and few tears of joy, he got down on one knee and produced a ring. I had no idea that he’d smuggled a ring into our luggage, or called my Dad the night before to ask his permission.

We celebrated with a wonderful lunch at the Vasse Felix winery, not forgetting that other than getting engaged, this special day was also Tom’s 27th birthday. Once the UK had awoken we shared the news with our parents, and having had a tip off the previous day my mum was waiting by the phone – I’m not sure if even rang before she picked up!

It was wonderful sharing our news with family and friends, and Tom had deliberately proposed just before our visit to the UK so that we could celebrate with as many people as possible in person. How he knew that I’d been dreaming that he might do that, I will never know. We were totally overwhelmed with the wonderful comments that we received from everyone- and particularly from our friends, for whom an engagement occurs roughly once a month at the moment, so there is no novelty factor left! Thank you to everyone for your wonderful cards, gifts, cakes and champagne.

There are many more stories to tell from our week in Western Australia, and our two week holiday in the UK, but I’ll save those for later editions and leave you now with some photos of our happy moment...

Autumn in Spring

Tom and I are very confused. Last week we had a wonderful autumnal long weekend in one of Victoria's best loved country hideways, where the air was crisp and the leaves on the trees were stunning shades of yellow, orange and red. But isn't September, or October, or even November.. it's April! Having Autumn during 'Spring' just feels wrong, but luckily that’s where the complications ended for our beautiful weekend in Daylesford.

Located ninety minutes north of the city of Melbourne, Daylesford is a popular romantic getaway for city-types, and is one of Australia's best natural spa towns - think a tiny version of Bath, but without the Romans. We had booked two nights at a local B&B and set off armed with a picnic and the Lonely Planet, but otherwise were relatively unprepared (I usually have an itinerary of events for weekends such as this!).

Our first stop was Hanging Rock, which is a volcanic rock formation, and therefore a very topical place to visit! We climbed the rock and ‘enjoyed’ the scenic views which were unfortunately obscured by lots of low cloud. (Chris – I don’t think it was a noctilucent cloud, or I would have taken a photo.) I’d been totally unprepared for how much cooler it is inland compared to the coast, and as a result was very underdressed - luckily though it was a steep climb which helped to keep me warm. The rock was (apparently) famously used as the location for the 19070s film ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ – so naturally we had a picnic ;-)

Me at Hanging Rock

Next it was on to Daylesford where we checked into our B&B, Cherry Tree Cottage. After an initially unwelcoming 10 minutes whilst we waited for the owner to appear, we were shown into a beautifully designed 2 bedroom annex, complete with log fire, champagne in the fridge and chocolates on the bed. Tom and I each spotted something that was missing though – no TV in the bedroom (that was Tom) and no proper door to the toilet (me!). Ho hum, who needs TV and privacy anyway?! I might sound critical, don’t worry I was much more favourable in my Tripadvisor review! The shower was one of these trendy roses hanging above a traditional claw-foot bath tub in the middle of the bedroom. It looked beautiful, but not cosy. So, when Tom showed signs of softening to the idea of going to a spa, I leaped at the chance for a decent shower and off we went!

We visited the Hepburn Bathhouse and Spa, which is a mineral water spa dating back to 1895. Thankfully there has been some considerable modernisation since it first opened, and we loved relaxing in the different pools. I say ‘we loved it’ – I certainly loved it and I think Tom tolerated it very well!

All afternoon we’d been counting down to our dinner reservation at super-fancy restaurant The Lake House. With two Chef’s Hats, The Lake House is one of Victoria’s most respected restaurants. Chef’s Hats are like Michelin Stars, but probably not quite as hard to get! Unfortunately we couldn’t get a reservation before 9.30pm, which is late for us – we’re really not that rock and roll. I was worried about staying awake, Tom was worried about fitting all the food in, and more importantly 9.30pm took AGES to come around! Eventually we were seated and the fun began! Tom had the most extravagantly named starter – ‘Five tastes of the sea’ – and it was spectacularly presented. For main course I had snapper with came with the best cous cous I’ve ever tasted – shame there was only half a teaspoon of it! Dessert stole the show however... five sharing dishes including quite possibly the best chocolate fondant I will ever eat in my life! We had a great night and went home sleepy, a bit heavier in the belly and a lot lighter in the purse!

Our pudding plate at The Lake House - sorry about the poor photo quality from my iPhone - I was too embarassed to get a proper camera out!

After all the raving about fancy food, the following night we had the *best* pizza to date in Australia at the Koukla wood fired pizza cafe. At around one quarter the price of The Lake House, the $ per ‘yummy noise’ ratio was much favourable, and Tom still hasn’t stopped talking about how good it was!

Before our pizza, we had spent the day that Ballarat Wildlife Park, which was another opportunity to get up close and personal with some of Australia’s wildlife. We loved feeding the kangaroos, and they were well trained at spotting the tourist with a bag of seed – we couldn’t keep them away!

Crocodile feeding time!

Yogi the koala!

On the same weekend that Tom and I were in Daylesford, my good friend Sally ran the London Marathon in aid of the Spinal Injuries Association. Tom thought I was crazy as I jumped around our B&B room cheering Sally out loud , “Run Sally, run!”. She finished in a great time, so it must have worked ;-) Well done Sally!

Since we’ve been back in Melbourne we’ve continued the usual routine. Ballet, wine tasting, gym etc are all ticking along nicely, and this weekend Canadian-friend-Tamara and I added Deep Water Running to the training schedule. It was hilarious, if you’re curious I suggest you look it up on You Tube as there isn’t space here to describe it! UK-colleague Gail and her boyfriend Jon arrived in Melbourne last week – see their blog at Jon and Gail’s Aussie Adventure - and so our expat community has grown again. We celebrated their arrival in style with Tom’s signature Beef Wellington a la Gordon Ramsey– it was so yummy I’ve almost forgotten about the pizza last week!

Until next time....

The Australian term for 'X-Large' eggs!

Extra-Curricular Activities

Tom and I have discovered that moving overseas creates a great enthusiasm to take up new hobbies, try that sport that you’ve been meaning to do for years, and just generally do more ‘things’ that we would ever be motivated to do at home. We started with a gym membership and our photography course earlier this year, but this week our extra-curricular activities have risen to a new level.

Tom was cooking up a storm in the kitchen last Sunday when he heard an advert for the Elance Adult Ballet School in Melbourne. I was promptly called away from the ironing (haha, aren’t I a good girlfriend?!) to listen to the advert, and within two days I had enrolled at the school and taken my first class! The Elance school runs out of a beautiful purpose built studio complex in the suburb of Hawthorn East, and has daily ballet classes for dancers of all abilities. Unlike many of the adult dance schools in big cities around the globe, at Elance you sign up for a full term, must show up on time and wear uniform to class – the closest thing I’ve ever found to the familiar surroundings of my childhood dancing experiences with Diane Gulliford. The parallels don’t stop there however – the school principle at Elance is also called Diane! So, I think this was meant to be and I’ve signed up for 12 classes.

As is normal for me, I’ve managed to turn finding a new activity into an excuse to go shopping! Although I brought ballet shoes with me on the plane from the UK (too precious for the ship!), I didn’t bring any clothing, so yesterday I had a field day in the Bloch shop buying a leotard, tights and ballet skirt. I got incredibly distracted by some tiny but beautiful Baby Bloch ballet shoes – Ella and Lucy if they hadn’t been sooo expensive I was going to buy a pair each for Dora and Amelie! I thought $55 a pair was a bit pricey when your babies aren’t even walking yet, let alone doing first position.. Miss Gulliford if you are reading this though I challenge you to resist buying a pair for baby Catrin!

Severely crippled from Tuesday night’s class, Wednesday evening was the first of five sessions of a wine tasting course. After an embarrassing start by being the last to arrive (we weren’t late, but the tutor was clearly waiting for us!), there weren’t two available seats next to each other. After we took our seats separately, the woman next to me asked if Tom wanted to swap with her so that we could sit together. Tom said ‘yes’ just as I said ‘no’ – cue much laughter from the rest of the class. Sorry Tom, it’s not that I didn’t want to sit next to you, because really I did – I was just being ‘British’ and trying not to cause a fuss!

What followed was some interesting tuition from our (English!) tutor on how to taste wines, plus the opportunity to smell, taste and score three whites and three reds. The room was full of suggestions as to the wine scents and flavours – citrus, spices and chocolate were all suggestions, and we received a flavour ‘wheel’ to help us out with ideas... including the well known and sought after scents of ‘wet dog’, ‘skunk’ and ‘hydrogen sulphide’! I sat quietly and wondered to myself if there was something wrong with my sense of smell and my tastebuds - all I could smell and taste was wine! I confided in my colleagues Neil and Richard the next day, explaining my total lack of ability in the wine department. They then enlightened me that wine tasting is all about lying – “just make it up!”, they said! This has left me somewhat bemused that we’ve paid $580 to a wine company to learn how to bluff about wines. Perhaps the answer is to drink more and think less! I’ll keep you posted...

On Thursday night, Tom’s British colleague Carolyn had invited us to the local pub quiz. We thought it would be a great opportunity to meet some new people, so off we went to join a team of eight Brits and one, poor, lonely Aussie. We’ve since faced allegations that really we are still living in Britain – our social circle is all ex-pats, we read British news and watch British TV (we hope you all enjoyed Masterchef as much as we did!). In our defence however, we are trying very hard to be Aussie, but there are SO many Brits here that it would be rude to not socialise with them! The quiz was challenging, and we placed a respectable fourth amongst a group of eleven teams with considerably more experience. This placing was achieved despite the ‘hot seat’ round being on my specialist subject of musicals, where I embarrassingly failed to remember that West Side Story is based on Romeo and Juliet. Never mind that I was able to complete the answer of the next team’s question.... in the musical My Fair Lady, ‘hurricanes hardly happen’ in which three counties..? Answers on a postcard please.

Friday night was work drinks, with the usual and now very friendly gang of the Canadians Richard and Tamara, the Brits Rob and Jacqui, and the now the newcomers Neil and Claire! We went for dinner on Melbourne’s Southbank and afterwards saw Reginald D Hunter’s stand up show, which was part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival. It wasn’t particularly remarkable, so I won’t remark further!

So now it’s Saturday, and Tom is off playing basketball (a similar resurgence of enthusiasm to my ballet classes) and I’m sitting on the balcony writing this blog. Summer has returned for one day only, so I’m maximising the tanning opportunity. I know that when we come home in June you will all remark that we are very pale, and question whether or not we’ve actually been in Australia for the past eight months!

There have been lots of missed celebrations this week for those we miss and love from back home, so here are a few messages... happy birthday this week to Dad, Anna and Kev, congratulations to Mr and Mrs Smith on your baby news, and much love to ‘you know who you both are’ on your engagement! Girls I’m very exciting to have a SATC2 date with you all, and Emma, March, Jake and Daisy it was lovely to see you all on Skype for the first time last weekend!

I don’t have any exciting photos from this week, so this is my on the balcony writing the blog:

Easter in Queensland

Forget chocolate bunnies, Easter 2010 was all about sun, sea and scenery, as Tom and I took our first inter-state holiday in southern Queensland. Home to Australia's third largest city, Brisbane, and the famous Gold Coast beaches, Queensland is a holiday destination for the masses, and it was very obvious why. Our host for the weekend was super-guide Merryl, who I've introduced on the blog several times before, but for those who you haven't read all of the previous editions (and shame on you!), Merryl is Tom's second cousin, and emigrated to Australia from the UK as a teenager. Super-guide is perhaps an understatement, as Merryl planned an unbelievable itinerary of sights that took us not just around the city of Brisbane but also all over southern Queensland. Merryl was not only a great tour guide but an uncomplaining chauffeur, and we zipped around to all of our destinations in her blue Honda Jazz (Dad I know you'll be jealous!).

We flew from Melbourne to Brisbane on Good Friday morning, and our plan for the day was to explore Brisbane. We took a long walk on the stunning southbank of the Brisbane River - it really reminded us of London's Southbank, with similar architecture (think Royal Festival Hall), a wheel almost as good as the London Eye, and several bridges crossing the river into the CBD. What Brisbane had to trump London however, was beautiful park areas and foliage, plus two outdoor swimming areas! It was the southbanks of all southbanks, in my opinion.

Brisbane Southbank

Brisbane Southbank

'Brisbane Eye' (I don't think it's actually called that!)

At the end of our walk awaited a blast from the past - and old friend from Bath university, Lisa Price - who since I last saw her 6 years ago has become Lisa Brownhill, mummy to Rhys and resident of Australia! Needless to say, we had a lot to catch up on, and it was great to meet her husband Richard and gorgeous little boy. Avid readers of my blog will know how baby-deprived I've felt since leaving Dora, Amelie, Ben, Ellie etc behind in the UK so any local babies are much doted upon.

Baby Rhys

L-R: Tom, Katie, Lisa, Rhys, Richard

Back at Merryl's house in the suburb of Daisy Hill, we were at one with nature. The house is on the edge of the forest, and built on a hill, so her first floor dining veranda is at mid-level tree height and provides a fantastic viewing opportunity for the local flora and fauna. Tom loved it, but you all know how I feel about bugs, and as darkness closed in whilst we ate our dinner, I couldn't hide my wandering eyes as I kept an eye on the moths, spiders and little geckos that were running around on the ceiling above us! Merryl tried to tell us about the spiders in the house before Tom immediately interrupted her with, "I don't think Katie needs to know about that at all thank you...!". Flashbacks of our Christmas trip and the huntsman spider encounter were fresh in both our minds, and Tom didn't fancy having that trauma on his hands again!

On the veranda

Dinner on the Veranda

Enjoying Merryl's swimming pool!

On Saturday we started the day with a long drive to the Glasshouse Mountains, and then headed further north to Noosa - a wonderful unspoilt beach resort. The beach was sandy and clean, the sea was warm and inviting - if only I'd had my swimming costume! We enjoyed a good paddle and then strolled along the main shopping street - Tom and I loved it and will definitely be heading back here for a relaxing holiday. Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo is also nearby so we'd like to return to visit his contraversial legacy.

Beautiful unspoilt Noosa beach

Tom and I

There were more beaches ahead of us on Sunday, but this time it was Surfers Paradise – just as beautiful a beach as Noosa, but totally contrasting surroundings. Instead of parklands and little hotels, it was skyscraper city, with dozens upon dozens of high rise apartment blocks to cater to the mass of tourists that flock to Surfers. The Costa del Sol of Australia is perhaps a fitting description, and it is this part of town that earns Brisbane it’s nickname of ‘BrisVegas’. Lots of the theme parks are in the vicinity, but we didn’t have time to visit so have put these in the list for next time. We had find time to swim however – my first proper swim in the Ocean here in Australia! The water was clear and warm and the waves were HUGE! I’d love to have a photographic record of my first Aussie swim, but unfortunately although Tom was left on the beach in charge of the camera, he didn’t take a photo!

Surfer's Paradise aka BrisVegas

Me being silly in Surfers

I thought this was an atmospheric shot

Lifeguard!

The rest of the weekend went by in a flash, so quickly in fact that we’ll definitely try to go back to Queensland and spend more time seeing the beautifully scenery and ticking off some of the zoos, aquariums and theme parks. Brisbane is only a two and a quarter hour flight from Melbourne, so it’s close enough to go for a weekend I think. We weren’t totally devoid of Easter tradition, with yummy Easter bunnies from Merryl, and a very lively debate about religion during Easter drinks with some of her friends!

Coming up over the next few weeks are lots of dinners with friends, Melbourne Comedy Festival, and plenty of sport – Aussie Rules football and Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships. We’ve also booked some theatre and a weekend away in local-spa town Dayelsford and will be arriving back in the UK 7 weeks today! We are looking forward to catching up with you all....

Here’s some more Queensland photos to close:

View of Brisbane from Mt Cout-tha

T&K, with Brisbane city in background

Surf anyone?! This was on a bus in Noosa.

Noosa beach

Stereotypical Aussie image

This was taken on Brisbane's Southbank, not Merryl's garden!

Kate, this one is for you - the first in hopefully a long list of Australia's 'BIG' landmarks that we will spot!