Merry Christmas All!!!!!!!!!!

Well this year we are far from home and we will be experiencing a cold Christmas for the first time! And cold it will be - we are going to a little town in France which is near Lyons and it's meant to be about -7 at the moment! Something to look forward to!
We are lucky really to have such nice friends to spend Christmas with when we are so far from our families.
We will really miss everyone this year!

An Update

Well it's been ages since we have posted anything on this blog! Mainly this is because we have been standing still in London. Well not really!
Since we last posted we have been to Cardiff (capital of Wales), Spain, Gibraltar (tip of Spain but is actually part of England), Bath and Leicester which is not that impressive given it's been a few months. We have also been to many a fancy dress party - in fact this seems to be all we are doing at the moment. It's so much fun! And we have had some friends from home and Norway over to visit which has been lovely! Here are some random photos from the past few months.

Spain was amazing:

Checking out the Gaudi art museum in Barcelona - amazing! If anyone visits it they will see Kristen's name in the guest book.















These hams were hanging absolutely everywhere!














The beaches - heavenly














Sangria - yum!













The Rock of Gibraltar - was so weird finding this little part of England in the middle of a Spanish holiday.



English fish and chips in the middle of Spain... weird
And now the dress up parties! Toga...













And dressed up as Christmas trees:














This was a villains and baddies party and we dressed up as cops to round them up...
Kristen even arrested some poor guy



















This seems to be a lot of what we do these days in the cold...









Hel and Paige came for a visit and it was so nice to see them!
What the is going on with Clare's hair??!!!! So funny... The gals having a boogie in the kitchen at our flat

Wales - do we need our passports??

Deb organised a trip to the capital of Wales for a girls weekend. We packed the night before and had the following conversation:

Kristen - "Clare this may be a dumb question, but do you think we need our passports?"

Clare - "I don't know! I guess it's another country so maybe"

Kristen - "Yeah we should take them just in case"

Deb organised a lift with Eddie, one of Kristen's managers and after Kristen held him up for 2 hours to meet a deadline we finally got on the road. We were like kids in the back seat -

"Oh my god Clare, I didn't bring my passport!!!!",

"Oh my god ME NEITHER!!!",

"Eddie? Do we need our passports for Wales?"

"Yes of course you do" - carried on talking to Deb in the front

"OH MY GOD we have to get them to let us out!!"

"Eddie? Are you kidding? Debs, do you need your passport for Wales!!?????"

"Yes Kristen you do...."

"Guys we are idiots and have forgotten them! Can you just let us out when you can Eddie? I'm so sorry for holding you up and now we can't even go!"

Anyhow, passports or no passports (blonde or brunette) we arrived and had a great weekend!

Birthday Caravan Fun in Minehead

For Kristen's 26th birthday Debbie, an amazing friend from her work organised a weekend away in her uncle's caravan. We caught the bus there Thursday night and it was Kristen's birthday on the Friday. Kristen loved opening pressies from her family and friends in the morning before rushing off for the bus!
On the way








Debs made an Aussie style birthday cake!









Debs in the kitchen - this caravan was amazing! Paul kept saying that we were camping but there was nothing rough about doing it this way! It had 4 bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom with a shower that completely out does any one I've ever been in!
On the beach which had brown water!! Deb said "it's only about half an hour into Minehead from here" - 2 hours later we called a taxi...





Clare and Kristen fell asleep while everyone else picked on them and put things on their heads etc...

Get Loaded in the Park

Our first festival! Was soooo much fun! We saw heaps of bands but the highlights were Peter Bjorn and John, DJ Yoda and The Streets! Love them!

When in Rome!

Clare and her lovely Dad John went off travelling for a couple of weeks last week and I went to meet them for a weekend in Rome, my first taste of Italy! We saw all the major sights and ate a lot (if not too much) pizza, pasta and gellati! It was amazing food...

At the Trevi fountain







Kristen on the top of Palatine hill in front of a fantastic view of the Roman Forum - the centre of Rome for 1000 years.


















Clare and John map checking on the Spanish Steps.















At the Vatican












In lies the Sistine Chapel...








Mmmmmm real Italian Gelati

































A prince took this photo!!!!!!! He was spray painting a vespa (which of course sparked John's great interest!), we asked him to take this pic and then we asked him for directions...
He unlocked the gate to this massive palace and led us through as a shortcut... We asked him how he had the keys and he said 'because I live here!' - it was truly the most amazing palace!!!






























The Colosseum was amazing!


We decided to prove the saying 'money can't buy you happiness' and bypassed the 300 metre long line with the purchase of a tour guide. She was fantastic and a crack up!


There were men dressed up as gladiators outside the Colosseum posing for photos with tourists (could you think of a worse job?!).



































Our legs got a big workout! Look at the grotty mess which was Kristen't feet by the end of a day!