Things I'm enjoying at the moment

Just thought I'd jot down a few songs and shows that are top of my list at the moment...

Music
"Love's Not A Competition" by the Kaiser Chiefs
"Ain't No Party" by Orson
"Mr Rock & Roll" by Amy MacDonald

TV
Heroes Season 2 (although the latest episode was a bit blah)
House Season 4 (just keeps getting better and better! Gotta love Hugh Laurie!)

Braces... Again...

Just got back from a visit to the orthodontist. He has fitted my lower teeth with braces again. Seems the original ones didn't do their job properly and so I'll be wearing these for about 6 months. Not a lot of fun!

Strangely, they are not as painful as when I had braces the first time... small mercies it seems...

Liz's Mum

Yesterday afternoon Liz's Mum Yvonne passed away. Liz's Dad Mile was with her when it happened. There will be a memorial service on the weekend after Thanksgiving (24 November).

The photo here is of some flowers my Mum & Dad sent through today for Liz.

It's a very sad time right now and there's nothing much really to say. Although Yvonne has been ill for a while now, it still does not feel real that she's gone...

Our First Anniversary!

Amazingly, a year has passed already since Liz & I were married!

I organised a surprise trip for Liz up to Cheshire, where we stayed at a 300 year farm house (in the old milking sheds!) about 15 minutes outside of Chester city. It was a very relaxing weekend, spending time walking around Chester, and going for a drive on Sunday through the Cheshire countryside and on into North Wales for lunch.

Dinner on Sunday night was at a really nice little pub just down the road from our B&B.

On Monday, we drove back to London, via Cannock and Cheslyn Hay, where I used to live when I was 19. Although the town hadn't physically changed, a lot of the shops were different and it didn't feel the same as I remembered it. Still, it was nice showing Liz a place where I spent a year of my life.

Ellie's 3rd Birthday

Liz and I drove up to Paul & Jenni's place to celebrate Ellie's 3rd birthday. It was a fun afternoon, and there were lots of little kids running around. Jenni had made Ellie a Young Einstein's cake, which Ellie loved.

I was completely exhausted by the end of the afternoon, and could barely keep my eyes open after 8pm!

The following morning, I drove Paul, Jenni, Ellie & Rhiannon down to the train station, as they were on their way to Euro Disney as a special treat for Ellie.

To see more photos from Ellie's birthday, click on the photo above to go through to my Flickr site...

Waiting For Harry...

Liz & I lined up on Friday night at midnight, to purchase the latest (and last) of the Harry Potter books. We didn't join the half-mile long queue in Oxford Street, opting instead for the much shorter line at our local WH Smiths in Loughton.

You'll notice we have a copy each - neither of us could wait for the other to finish... Mind you, having said that, we've been a little slow in reading the book - both of us are only up to Chapter 3 as of Sunday afternoon.

And in case anyone is wondering, my copy is the one on the right...

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

We have been having some crazy weather lately (although not too surprising as Wimbledon is on at the moment).

Liz and I were barbequeing last night and we both looked up to the sky over our back garden to see this amazing double rainbow. A quick run back indoors to grab my camera, and I squeezed off a few shots. I really love how the rainbow stretches across the sky, and the darker band of grey in between, joining the two rainbows together...

Having a little laugh

I love this pic of Rhiannon, which I took when Jenni came to pick Ellie up from our place.

Ellie's First Sleepover

Ellie stayed over at her Uncle Mark's & Aunty Liz's place for the first time.

We all had fun playing lots of different games together, including twister, which Ellie had a laugh about, and playing with some goop, which Ellie loved but Uncle Mark not so much :)

When it was time to go to bed, Ellie got to sleep in the BIG bed in our guest bedroom.

Ellie's Mum and sister Rhiannon came over the next day to pick Ellie up. Ellie told her Rhiannon and her Mum that she missed them, but was already planning her next visit to her Uncle's and Aunt's place...

Before & After

We haven't quite finished our work in the back garden, however we can already see a great improvement from when we started...

Our New Garden Furniture

A pic of our new garden furniture - a wedding gift from Paul & Jenni - with our fantastic weber BBQ in the background...

Finance Golf Day 2007

Martin, myself, Jason & Colin played together as a team for the Finance Golf Day at Stanmore. Unlike last year, we managed to get back to the clubhouse before dark.

Mark, the Professional Gardener

Working in the back garden, and cleaning out the last few remains of our fish pond we inherited from the previous owners. We sold off the fish once the Winter was over - it wasn't really something we wanted to keep in the long term, and the fact that the pump for the pond died the week before certainly helped us decide what to do and quickly!.

And yes, I do NOT know what possessed me to wear a white t-shirt whilst doing this! I think we weren't planning on doing something in the garden at that moment, but just sort of started and was well into it before I knew what was going on :P

The Marczewski Clan Visits London

I was lucky enough to have my dear friends Piotr, Magda and their son (my godson) Tomek visiting in London for my 35th birthday. We all went out to dinner at a burger joint in Covent Garden, where we enjoyed some delicious gourmet burgers.

Earlier, Liz & I took Magda & Tomek on a tour of London. We visited the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, rode just about every bus we could find, and finished off enjoying some free ice creams courtesy of Ben & Jerry's. Tomek had been waiting for the ice cream all day, and was completely unphased by the long queue we faced when we got there - he boldly walked straight to the front of the line and asked for his ice cream! He was a tired little boy by the time we finished for the day.

How's About A Kiss?

IMG_5508
Originally uploaded by mkdougal.

Paul, Jenni, Ellie and Rhiannon came over to our place yesterday for a visit. It was lots of fun entertaining them in our home.

I cooked up some spaghetti bolognaise for lunch (my little speciality), and we all had some chocolate cake for dessert to celebrate Liz's and Paul's birthdays.

As you can see, Ellie really REALLY *loves* chocolate cake!

My Two Beautiful Nieces!

Originally uploaded by mkdougal.

Liz and I spent the night last night at Paul & Jenni's place.

It was really nice to catch up, and also grab some pics of my two little nieces - Ellie and Rhiannon. Rhiannon is just 8 weeks old!

Our New Home...

Originally uploaded by mkdougal.

...with our new car parked out the front. The other shot is of our back garden - yes that's a fish pond on the left hand side behind the little fence.

We've been very busy since our wedding, getting ourselves nice and settled into our new place. We put an offer in on the place before getting married last October, completed the purchase when we returned, and moved in on the 20th of November 2006. A pretty quick turnaround so we are told.

So, a little bit of information about our home...

It is a 3 bedroom 1930's built house (20 years older than Mum & Dads back in Oz). It's about a 7-10 minute walk to the nearest tube station, Loughton, and then it's about a 45 minute tube ride either into the centre of London, or to Canary Wharf, where I work. Liz mainly works around the Stratford area, so it takes around 25 minutes by tube for her.

The high road is also around 10 minutes walk away, however there's a convenience store and a few other shops around the corner from our home, which is handy for grabbing the little essentials.

We've started some renovating (just the bathroom - nice and simple to start with) and are enjoying our new place immensely.

Our car is a Renault Megane, that I really love driving. It's a little smaller than what I am used to from Australia, but needs to be to park and drive on the small streets in the UK! It's been over 7 years since I owned a car. Living in London and New York I didn't really miss having one, but now we have one it's really handy. Particularly for driving up to see Paul & Jenni (brother and sister-in-law), and my two beautiful nieces Ellie & Rhiannon (yes, Jenni gave birth to Rhiannon on 27 December 2006).

Let It Snow!

Originally uploaded by mkdougal.

Ok, so a few people have commented that my blog is perhaps not as up to date as it used to be, and would like some more pics posted... (thanks for the gentle nudge F!)

So, here are a few from the big snow fall we had in London in January...