Our Blog Is Moving...

We thought we'd try a new platform for our blog, one that might be easier to update on the fly once we've left the country in July. If you'd like to read, simply go to:

shannonandfiona.tumblr.com

It's still a bit rough at the moment, but we'll get it looking pretty and update it regularly....I promise!

Get well soon!

Our love and best wishes go out to Aunty Heather for a speedy recovery. We hope you're feeling better soon. We're thinking of you xoxoxoxoxox

Puttin' on the Ritz

We recently had a lovely weekend in London, to celebrate Shannon's 32nd Birthday. We started with afternoon tea at the Ritz, which was actually a birthday gift for me from Pat and Pete for my 31st Birthday

Afternoon tea is held in the Palm Court of the Ritz hotel, which as you can see is a truly magnificent venue

Our delicious afternoon tea consisted of finger sandwiches (no crusts!) - with cucumber, ham, chicken, cheese and salmon. Oh, and an egg and mayo roll. Half way through, they brought out some freshly baked apple and sultana scones, which we devoured with strawberry jam and clotted cream. To top it all off we had a selection of cakes and pastries. There was an impressive tea menu of 20 odd varieties of tea, from which we selected the darjeeling - the 'champagne' of teas, from the foothills of the Himalaya (which we thought was a good omen for us), and not a bad drop!

Having a scone and a cuppa, on Pat and Pete - cheers!

Merry Christmas 2010

Henry gets an early start, ripping into his Christmas presents

We started our day with a lovely bubbly bottle of Gosset while opening our presents and preparing lunch. Here's Shannon opening the Burgundy which we had with lunch - a 1999 Pommard

We went with the Aussie tradition of a little seafood for starters. Here's a picture of me eating my last ever oyster...

Henry having his own little Christmas dinner

We had a lovely lunch of ham and roast turkey, accompanied by roast vegetables and the much maligned british brussel sprouts, which actually weren't too bad. We've really taken to the traditional British accompaniments of little chipolata sausages wrapped in bacon, and stuffing balls to accompany the roast dinner - yum!

And to finish, Pat's delicious Christmas pud, all the way from Oz

We had a really lovely, relaxing, delicious Christmas day at home with our little man. It wasn't quite a white Christmas in the end, but nevertheless our last winter Christmas for a while. We had a lovely day, but we're also really looking forward to being back with our family and friends next Christmas

Snow business like snow business

So. Snow.

Even everyone in Australia is probably aware of the 'issues' the snow has caused over here in the UK. Anyone trying to travel to or from has probably experienced them first-hand.

Beyond the odd day off work, a slip here and there, and the occasional 100km/h spin (540 degrees to exact!) on the A31, the snow has provided us 'tourists' with nothing more than a lovely white backdrop for the lead up to Christmas.

It of course goes without saying that Henry was delighted with his frosty new playground. You can see more wintery photos on our flickr page: 'It's Snowing Again...'