Just because the sun's out, doesn't mean it's hot!

So, after spending just over a week in London, we boarded a bus Saturday morning and headed for the seaside towns of Portsmouth and Southsea. The main purpose been to see a friend's band (Revere. Youtube them) play on the Sunday night.
We arrived to glorious subshine and sky with not a cloud in sight. Now lets get one thing straight people, just because the sun's out, doesn't mean it's hot! The wind that was blowing off the ocean was enough to chill you to the bones, yet people were sporting summer dresses and shorts and t-shirts.
The taxi driver later told us it was the first sun they had seen in six months, so I guess they can be forgiven for getting a little excited!
After checking into our accommodation we headed for Frattan Park, the local football stadium where Pompey (Portsmouth) was preparing to take on Sheffield United. the kind lad found us seats between the Pompey and Sheffield supporters. Now I'm convinced there were people there who's only reason for going was to yell abuse at the opposition supporters!! Fortunately for us we were seated next to a couple of quiet, young teenage boys and civilised girls as opposed to the overweight, middle aged men yelling every profanity under the sun all the while spraying the immediate crowd with their large volumes of spit!!
I had prepared for a nil all draw and for the general comment to be "what a good game", but the struggling Pompey team who the team's supporters had recently bought back after its owners went into administration scored two quick goals before scoring a third just before half time. That soon quietened the United fans and the chant of "stand up if you're three goals up" rang out in out corner of the ground!
No more goals were kicked after half time and I left thinking that soccer is much more exciting when you're wrapped up in all the chanting and abuse compared to watching it in the idiot box!
Sunday we headed to the beach where all Ned's childhood dreams came true, for the pier was stacked with amusement rides (similar to Luna park) and buildings filled with arcade games. We widdle away the afternoon trying to win a couple of pounds on a variety of games. We ate donuts that were terrible, deciding that the next day we'd give them....donuts!!
Sunday evening we made out way to a local music venue where the crowd was a collective mix of young hipsters, uni students and parents and grandparents of the musos.
Revere we're amazing and it's a shame that we won't have the opportunity to see them again before we leave. The following act B for the Bang were pretty sweet also, with Ned purchasing a vinyl.
Today (Monday) we catch the early bus back to London before heading to Luton airport for a 4.15pm flight to Morocco. We'll be there for about nine days hoping to soak in the cultural and culinary delights the country has to offer as well as temperatures in the low to mid 30s. A dessert safari on camels and a sleepover will hopefully be on the cards.
Until then we will remember the poor people at work and look forward to "blogging" about Morocco!

Been almost a week

Well we have been in London for 5 days now and the body clock's are finally in tune. We spent the first 2 nights in hostels trying to beat the jetlag and didn't accomplish much apart from getting a new card for our old English bank account.

We walked into the Mongolian embassy without an appointment and received our visas in about 5 minutes (take note Russia!) That was a big relief so it is now all systems go for the Trans Siberian adventure.

We have been staying at Graeme's the last few nights which has been great. It's much better staying with friends and we get to have some family dinners. Last night Graeme cooked us an amazing gluten free spag  bol from scratch which was washed down with a delightful South Aussie red and backed by the best of Pavarotti on youtube .

We spent Sunday with our friends Stephen and Gabby and had a ball. Our aim was to hit up some car boot sales before lunch at the pub (Sunday roast lunch at the pub is a big deal over here, the first 5 pubs we called were booked out!). The first sale was advertised as 200 stalls outside but in reality turned out to be 4 stalls in a hall. Stephen had buyers remorse when we left and is still kicking himself that he didn't buy a pack of cards titled "The Best Rocks In Wales". The next sale was better and I won the 'best buy for a pound' game with a magnificent collection of top trumps cards. The top trumps were a good buy as we got to play them whilst we waited over an hour for lunch.

We have started planning and booking the  first of our mini trips of the next few weeks. The first is to Portsmouth to Watch Stephen's band Revere and then we will be heading to Morocco. Shit is finally starting to get real!

Here is a  photo of our  family dinner, a "Posh" drop and a jar of moles we saw at a museum today..

Halfway there!

We have just arrived in KL to a lovely muggy 33°. Quote of the day went to a 5 year old young fella who stepped into the heat and said "I don't like this thick air".
The flight was one of the better long haul ones we've had. Managed to watch The Breakfast Club and Bubba Ho-Tep and even had a little snooze.

Here is a photo of me before we left Melbourne and a photo of the delightful second lunch I had on board

Visas Visas Visas......

It seems someone at the Russian Consulate is trying to big note themselves by making it harder to get visas, we now have about 3 working days until we are due to fly out and our visas and passports are still in Sydney....... Shit is getting stressful!

This is a picture of the man causing all the grief.