Lock, stock and the kitchen sink

It feels strange to live in an empty house. Our last lot of furniture goes tomorrow and on Tuesday the shipping company will be picking up our boxes. I've done well; arrived in London in 1993 with a backpack weighing 12kg, leaving London 14 years later with 24 tea chests, a bike box and a family!

We were going to ship our furniture too, but we decided against it and sold everything. We still have a bed, 2 couches and 2 TVs. And a laptop of course! But that's about it. Four more weeks in our home of almost 5 years and then we're off to greener pastures.

I'm already missing my friends that I'm leaving behind.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

This Friday's photo was taken last Sunday in a small garden, St Dunstan's, in central London.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

The week that was...

...last week.

Worked hard, played hard.

FA Cup final on Saturday was crazy busy. Say no more. Beat budget for the period which means bonus time = spending money for the States!

Thurday night we went out for dinner with our friend CF. We ate and drank too much in our favourite gastro pub, The Mitre.

Friday night we decided to bid farewell to the local Walkabout in Shepherd's Bush (where Deb and I met 5 years ago). We dragged CF and Dazzler with us and played drinking games all night. We stumbled home at midnight, released the baby-sitter and then scoffed down 2 supersized pizzas and a large chips!

Saturday morning came too quickly and with it a very disappointing result in the rugby. After months of chasing the elusive Super 14 trophy, the Sharks served it up on a platter to the Bulls. (You'd think that they would be able to kick by now!)

Sunday we headed into the City, the financial centre of London. We did some geocaching, took some photos and then met Dazzler, who'd been at work(!), for a pub lunch. The weather was fantastic and by the time we got home at 7.30pm, we were absolutely knackered!

Just 4 weeks of work left and 5 weeks till we leave this country for good.

BTW, don't forget our farewell party on Saturday 23rd June from 3pm (braai) till very late!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

House of pain(t)

Yesterday I went paintballing with some mates and some of the lads from the local hardware store. It had all been planned for weeks and there were around 40 of us. Just a pity the weather didn't want to play!

We left at 8am and drove the hour-and-a-half to "Delta Force" in Upminster. The whole place was pretty well set up and the organisation was very professional.

After registering and collecting our boiler suits and masks, we went through all the rules of play and the safety stuff before being split into teams. We were in the green team.

The day was divided into 6 games. Each game had 2 rounds lasting about 10 minutes. The first and the last games were the two I enjoyed most.

The first was "All the president's men". We had to escort our president from our side of the field to an aeroplane without her getting shot (which we did), and then the other team had to do the same (which they couldn't manage).

The last game was "Jungle assault". The team had to plant a bomb in the other team's base without getting shot. This game was played in the bush with a swamp and thick cover and it ended in a draw.

By the last game we were all absolutely drenched! The boiler suits were covered in mud and most masks were covered in orange paint from the headshots (which don't count btw)

Anyway, in 12 rounds I only got hit twice. Both times in the shoulder. Must be my South African childhood that protected me. And no, I never went to the army!
Base camp


Can you feel the pain?

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

This week's pic is of Joshua enjoying the swings! No, LOVING the swings!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Travel plans

The travel plans are coming along quite nicely. Our flights from London to Melbourne are all booked and paid for. Our accommodation along the way is also all booked and deposits paid.

We first fly to New York on the 30th June. We spend 5 nights here, hopefully celebrating the 4th of July in style! We then fly to Buffalo and spend 3 nights based here but visiting the Niagara Falls area.

From Buffalo we fly back to New York for 1 night before travelling across to the west coast for 6 nights in the Vancouver area. Hopefully we will get to visit Vancouver Island and even Whistler would be nice. All depends on the finances.

Seven more weeks!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

What's in a name?

A list was recently published in newspapers of last year's favourite children's names in the UK.

On the girly list, there were some truly inspired names:
Over 2800 Kylies,
1422 Britneys,
and 288 Madonnas

But it was the boy list that brought a smile to my lips:
6 Gandalfs,
2 Supermans
and 1 Harry Potter!

You've gotta admire the British sense of humour!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

May Madness

Finally April is out of the way and we start heading towards a glorious summer. Although summer seems to have already come to London! It's been over 20 degrees every day this week, starting with a magnificent Sunday lunch down at the river with friends.

My madness was actually last week: short staffed, I worked too many hours of which half were in the kitchen. It was also very busy (we beat budget by almost 18%!) which put a lot of pressure on everyone!

On the bright side, we braaied twice last week, Josh turned one and The Sharks moved up to 2nd place in the Super 14 rankings!

I handed in my notice too. It's all getting very real now; only 8 more weeks to go before we leave. The route is planned, the tickets are paid for. The only catch is that I don't yet have a visa to go and live in Aus!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

PS:Watch the braai video on YouTube. It's hilarious!