Poland here we come

Firstly, thankyou for all the well wishers. Darryl is okay, he has finally stopped whistling when he snores.

We are off to France and Poland shortly, we are very excited although it has been incredibly cold over that way.

The Lion King at the Westend was outstanding. The most amazing live performance I have ever seen!!!! Perhaps even more amazing was that nothing out of the ordinary happened to Clark Griswald - go figure!!!!

We did visit the Australian Embassy this morning to investigate getting a work Visa. We are enjoying the country so much that we are considering working and living here for 12 months. We will keep you posted.

Scotland part II

Having had a poor experience last time we visited Scotland we decided to return, by bus this time, and with our tour guide Courtney.

The bus trip was lovely, we stopped into all sorts of great towns and spots which we had missed when we drove up the first time. The big angora (not as big as the big merino) at Tunbridge Wells was very realistic but the highlight had to be the Pet cemetery at Lewes - it had to be seen to be believed. As big as any cemetry I have ever seen!!!

This photo is over part of our travel group in front of the Falkirk Wheel, the lady poking her head out from behind Lisa in the front is Maree Ball! We dont think we are related!! The group was a rotary group travelling to Scotland for an international rotary function.

The Falkirk Wheel is a system for boats to change between two different river systems - it allows for boats to travel from one side of Scotland to the other. The wheel spins on an axis, with 15 metre long arms which each carry basins each of which hold 700,000 litres of water. The weight of each basin never changes no matter how many boats are in each basin because of Archimedes principle. Darryl made me write this!!!

Speaking of Darryl, we think he broke his nose. When he was getting back on the bus at Okehampton, he was carrying 3 cuppas and a tray of muffins (they call them crakes here). However he tripped on the bottom step of the bus and rather than spill the cuppas and muffins he just wacked his nose on the floor of the bus, there was a fair amount of blood but we bought some frozen peas from the supermarket and managed to stem the flow. You couldn't tell his nose was broken apart from the last two nights - when he is sleeping his nose now whistles when he is snoring!!!!!

Phone broken at Blarney Castle

Despite the extreme cold we have made our way to Ireland for a quick visit. the land is beautiful and the people are so friendly. We met some Hurleys at a pub in a place called Mullingar, we were sent there by Uncle John - they knew him and were very friendly and welcoming!!!!

We visited Blarney Castle and despite all the signs everywhere, Darryl dropped his mobile phone out of his top pocket when he bent over backwards to kiss the stone. Thankfully it missed the Canadian tour group by a few feet - he did salvage his sim card, but we will need to wait until we get back to Courtney before we can sort it out.

Love and Kisses

M and D

Flying trip to Ireland

Prior to leaving for the mainland we are doing a flying trip to Ireland, and to visit the mother country. Uncle John has given me the names of some relatives who we might drop in to see.

Our thoughts are with the people in Victoria, the fires sound terrible. In contrast, here is a pic of us in Hexham a few days ago. The cold and snow is truly unbelievable.

Darryls hand got stuck to the door of a restaraunt we were going to the other night, he had opened the door to let me in and because I took so long to get to the door his hand got stuck - the Maitre De came and poured some water on his hand to get it free. They us two free servings of flaming Rum balls in De Laclaire custard as way of apology!!!

back from Scotland and off to FRance soon

Well we finally got back to Courtneys after those darn scottish highwaymen robbed us!!! We drove through the aftermath of the snowstorms that had hit the Southern end of England. Wasn't too bad, but it did make Queanbeyan seem like the Gold Coast - it was pretty chilly at times.

We are heading over to France shortly and will drop into Belgium and Poland (Darryl has some ancestral stuff in Poland). We are really excited to be visiting the Louvre and some of the other great historical places in Europe.

The passport came back but they had my name as Marie Bell so it has to go back to get sorted out, the consulate assures us it wont be a problem with our trip to FRance. THe holiday shenanigans continue...... ah well!!!!!!

European Vacation - Balls style

Well it has been a real rollercoaster the last week or so.

We had a great time with Courtney doing heaps of sight seeing, getting lost and getting in touch with some real history.

About a week ago we hired a car and started to head North, we called into Ipswich then Norwich and Cambridge - what a great city - the windows and doors on all the buildings are really small, suits me down to the ground, but Darryl kept hitting his head every where we went.

We then dropped into Exeter and Leeds before making our way through York and checked out the Severn River.

and then our dramas started. We were at a small town called Hexham on the way to Scotland when we made a spur of the moment decision to visit a local tourist attraction when we got robbed. When we only 100 yards or so from the car when this bloke smashed our window, reached in and grabbed our stuff and bolted. Funnily enough we think he looked a bit like David Beckham - go figure. Aside from that, Hexham is famous for its Abbey and a riot which occured in 1700s - I think they called it the butchers of hexham or something like that.



We have just about sorted everything out and are back on the road, I am posting this from an internet cafe in Morpeth.