Athens, Nice and More
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Guns n Roses - Better
Bonjour, Yassas, G’Day Mate, You ‘right yeah?, Dobry den

That should just about cover all the languages we’ve encountered recently (except the last one which is good day in the Czech Republic and that is not till next week).

Ok here goes…. Since we last updated you we have been to Athens together, I went on a weekend trip to Nice in the south of France and next weekend we are heading off to Prague together for a couple of days.

I’ll start at the beginning – Athens was a fabulous trip and even though it was short Kerris and I both felt very relaxed on our return. We got into Athens at about 3 in the morning coz our flight was delayed – however we made the most of the time while we were waiting and hung out in the BA lounge drinking the open bar. We stayed at the Hilton which is a gorgeous hotel with a room overlooking the Acropolis (see pictures). We ventured out sightseeing (along with a little impromptu shopping) on the Saturday and saw the Olympic Stadium, the Acropolis and also the ancient Greek theatres. After finally getting (and being able to understand) directions we headed over to the shopping district (circa 3pm) and did some mad shopping after we realized that the shops aren’t open on a Sunday and close at 5pm on a Saturday. Shopping mission accomplished with one pair of boardshorts for I’m sure I didn’t pack my boardies (but surprisingly there was a pair in the suitcase when we got back to the hotel) and some groovy leather thongs. We headed back to the hotel to drink our free bottle of wine (one of the perks you get when you have a job that requires you to organize and book training venues!) and watch the most fabulous sunset, planning our next trip away. This was followed by a yummy dinner on the top floor of the hotel, again with wicked views of Athens. I hear you ask and what was the occasion for this little junket? Well Kerris and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary (can you believe it - time goes so quickly) and thought it was a good idea to use one of our free trips (from our round the world ticket) and spoil ourselves.

Two and a bit weeks later I jetsetted off to Nice from Luton Airport (which was a bloody mission to get to and I got a fine for not having the right ticket on the train on the way to the airport). Flying over the Med into Nice you can see that the colour of the sea here is different to home it’s more of an iridescent blue here and you can see the whitewash from the cruise liners for miles. A short taxi ride later and I caught up with Bec, Dave, Paris and Baby Sebastian who graciously put me up in their apartment for 2 days. It was great to see Bec and Dave and meet baby Sebastian for the first time and to play make-up and hotter & colder with Paris (who calls Show and Tell - Shell and Toe or Toll and Tell so v cute)! On the Sunday we drove up north of Nice about 20 minutes south of Monaco and met up with Anna and Henry at this divine café/restaurant right on the beach and spent the afternoon drinking wine, eating delicious food and catching up. I had such a good time and it was so relaxing – now if only I could work remotely from there in the Summer life would nearly be complete! The next day we headed up to meet Anna, Henry and Henry’s friends Bec and Dom and their little baby for lunch in Monaco. It was cool driving around the Grand Prix track as they were still taking down the grandstands and stuff. This was unfortunately a very quick lunch as my flight left at about 4pm so when we left Monaco Dave had to do some creative driving to get me to the Airport in time. Luckily flight was delayed so I made it in plenty of time.

The World Cup has kicked off for 2006 as you probably know and over here it is the biggest thing since sliced bread! I felt very proud to be an Aussie on Monday when Australia beat Japan 3-1. Tomorrow we are heading to the pub to watch the Australia vs Brazil game with our Brazilian flatmates so keep those fingers crossed and hopefully we will see the Australian team come out on top. On Tuesday night I’m heading into London with Clare and Sarah from work to go and watch the England v Sweden game complete with dinner and drinks (England are Kerris and my second favourite team to win) courtesy of one of our suppliers at work so I’m looking forward to that. Kerris keeps asking me if I’m really sure if I want to go and “don’t you think it would be much better if I went because I understand the game so much better than you”, however my selective hearing seems to have kicked in!.

Kerris has been doing a bit of celebrity spotting (well Aussie celebrities anyway) and saw Pat Cash in Wimbledon the other week and today he was working out at the Gym and the Poo (Mark Philippoussis) was there gearing up for Wimbledon which is in two weeks time.

Next Thursday night we are off to Prague for 2 days to catch up with Sarah & Patrick, Anna and also Emma Jacques-Kirk. It’s in aid of Sarah’s birthday and is sure to be a good weekend!

Kerris has just returned from the shops armed with a pink striped cooler bag (the English alternative to an esky) always ensuring that I look stylish or as he said “well because It’s pink there’ll be no chance of me carrying it!” So this afternoon consists of a short Tube ride to Putney Bridge armed with towels, beer and books for an afternoon lying in the sun looking over the river. Ahhh it’s a tough life!

The big K himself has asked me to tell you all that he will be doing a Download special blog with all the lowdown on the Download Festival and promised me it will be coming to your inbox soon.

Lots of Love and Kisses

B & K

Athens & Nice Photos

Football, Gym Stories and more....
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: I'm Walking on Sunshine
Hola Everyone, and welcome to London in the Summertime, the last 3 days have been in the mid twenty’s and we have been sitting outside of an evening sipping wine. It’s been a while since we last did an update and so much has happened since then. We have 3 new housemates Tati and Mary from Brazil and Mathilde from Paris who are all fabulous gals. The house is going well and had a house party the Thursday night of Easter weekend. The theme was pyjama party with bling. Everyone chipped in 17 quid and we made strawberry daiquiris and mojitos, lots of nibblies and oven cooked pizzas! There were quite a few sore heads the next day and the house was very quiet until lunchtime the next day.

Daylight savings has now brightened up the UK which is fabulous – it doesn’t get dark till well after 8pm every night so a night out on the town seems to last forever. Spring has sprung – see the pictures of the daffodils on the link.

I LOVE my job and I recently went to Amsterdam for work with the rest of our team to run the first session of our redesigned New Employee Orientation training. It went really well and I was also lucky enough to go on a canal cruise through the city of Amsterdam which is a really pretty city. I also got a glimpse (which was quite enough) of the famous “red light district” and I’m sure needs no introduction.

Kerris has started a new job and it started with surfing the net for 3 straight weeks but has picked up over the last couple and he is learning new stuff every day.

I sprained my ankle the other week which was in classic Belinda style and it happened at the Gym but not when I was working out… no it was after I’d finished my workout and missed the step and landed AOT (how embarrassing) in front of ALL the exercise machines. Not something I’d recommend to do, if you’ve ever considered it. All is well now and I’ve even managed to show my face at the gym for a workout again (I don’t think anyone recognized me which is a very good thing – although it might have been the new gym clothes I bought).

As one does when traveling we did the “Big London Bus tour” on the Saturday on Easter weekend. Kerris and I rounded up three of our housemates and although it was a bit of a chilly and gray day we had lots of fun and only got stuck in traffic once - and managed not to fall out of the open air bus while leaning over trying to get good snaps.

Kerris has started playing Football (no not the type with the egg shaped ball the type with the round ball with all the patches on it – yes Soccer as we antipodeans have come to know it). Back in fine form and scoring heaps of goals (complete with huge astro turf grazes on his knees that he moans about however he assures me that it is a good idea that he play in his leather cons and not his running shoes, because I can feel the ball so much better!

There has been lots of socializing lately I had a huge night out with Sheridan – along with all her body building mates for her birthday – and did a control alt delete (big time). An interesting night (I’ve never seen so many body builders in the same room) and a big thanks goes out to Clare who ensured I got home ok. So with that out of my system – all other nights out have been quite civilized!

Anna, Sarah and I had a good night at the Xavier Rudd gig – it was like he brought a little piece of home to us and had us singing and grooving along to all his songs!

It was Anna’s birthday the other week and we went to a really nice restaurant in Notting Hill with a groovy bar downstairs. We had all our bags and coats piled on top of each other like a mountain and the bag on top fell over and the whole pile came down spilling drinks and making a right mess. Nevertheless it didn’t spoil the night and it was great to catch up with Sarah and Anna and her friends.

My friend Julie was in London last Saturday night on a very quick stopover on the way to Paris for a conference so it was great to catch up with her and we also had the pleasure of meeting her friends and had another great night out. There was a lady in her 40’s at the bar who was dancing the night away it was great to watch someone who knows how have a fun time and kick up the heels – here’s to hoping we show the same spirit when we hit the 40’s gals!

Kerris made the acquaintance of James who is the son of Pauline and Davids good friends. Kerris and James had a day out in central London scouring music and guitar shops and finished it off watching the FA Cup semi between Liverpool and Chelsea at a pub in Embankment. And as Liverpool won, Belinda and Sarah both have to scull a JD n Coke and a shot of Sambuca because they support a crap team!!!!

We are still on the hunt to secure tickets to the world cup, we have the flights sorted but need to get some tickets. I have my contacts working on it as we speak so hopefully by the next time we write to you we will have some world cup tickets in our hot little hands.

Next weekend we are off to Athens for two days (as part of our round the world trip we got 2 flights in Europe) we are both looking forward to the minibreak and also some shopping and sightseeing. I have been told by two very trustworthy sources that the shoe and handbag shopping is very good in Athens so look out credit card!

Kerris is off to the Download festival in 3 weeks time and Alice in Chains, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, In Flames, Satyricon, Henry Rollins, Trivium, Korn, Deftones, Cradle of Filth, Arch Enemy Opeth, Soilwork, Strapping Young Lad!!!!! Plus many more!!! are on the bill. It’s out at Newbury which is about an hour out of town. So next mission is to buy a tent so he can camp out there for three days. Hmmm I might just have to go and visit the day spa!


Hugs and kisses

B &K

England & London Photos

Have job, will spend GBP!!!!
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: London in the Summertime - RHCP
Well yes you must be getting a bit tired of my same old excuses – however this one is a good one…… the reason you have been without an update for so long is because I too now have a job!!! (insert huge sigh of relief here). I am working for an international IT network company called Juniper and my role is HR Administrator & Training Co-Ordinator. A huge thanks goes out to Michele G who pointed me in the direction of Huntress who put me forward for the role. (I owe you a drink next time we catch up MG). The UK office looks after all their employees across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and there is the opportunity for some travel with the role too. The people I’m working with are great and I can wear Jeans to work any day of the week! Not only do we both now have jobs, (although K has mentioned that he quite likes the thought of taking a week or two off after his contract finishes in a few weeks time) we have also acquired some new digs!! After the Ball’s so kindly put us up for the last few weeks, the time finally came to leave the nest and fly out on our own – enter share house in Southfields (very close to Wimbledon – two stops on the tube). We now have (omg I can’t believe it myself) SIX (soon to be eight) new flatmates (two South African gals, one Irish gal, one Italian guy, one Aussie, and one Parisian – a nice cultural mix I think.) and are renting a room in a six bedroom, three bathroom house. (Never say never – hey B). There is a fabulous deck out the back which should come in handy in the summertime (they keep telling me it’s coming) and it has all mod cons and so far we have not had a cold shower since we have been here (this is day five). So all is good, and now we are sorted with living arrangements, it is time to do the touristy stuff so next on the agenda is a visit to Harrods, Hemleys and BHP (that’s Buckingham Palace for those of you who are not up with the jargon) and anything else that is free or really cheap. So any suggestions or recommendations to add onto our list would be greatly appreciated and the best suggestion will be rewarded with a nice souvenir teaspoon with the British Flag on it. Now I must take a moment to mention that the number of emails that we have received from home has dwindled considerably over the past three months – no names mentioned. So as an incentive we are offering 2 first class return tickets from Brisbane to London to the lucky bugger that sends us the most number of emails with lots of updates, Aussie news etc…. Nah sorry just kidding, however should you feel overcome with guilt and as a result discover a burning desire to pen us a little note please feel free to press send! On the other hand if you suddenly feel an intense need to send us some Kraft Crunchy Peanut Butter, Tim Tams, Cherry Ripes, Cheezels, (no Vegemite please you can get that at Tesco here) Chico Babies or ETA BBQ Sauce please do not take a moment’s hesitation in doing so and do act on that thought. So moving forward the decisions are many….. does one take multiple minibreaks to Paris, South France, Germany (for the World Cup) and Greece or just take a couple of weeks and bugger off to see the whole lot. Oh such a tough life. Well on that note I think I’ll sign off and check ya later. XX OO K & B

There is Sun and we have Blue Sky.... Can you believe this is England?
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: George
Hi every one!!! It’s my turn (Kerris’) to write the blog so that’s why it’s taken so long. We’ve made it to London and I’m sitting in a busy, noisy little café in Egham, Surrey. Yes it is Australia Day, and don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll finish this update in the little English pub across the road. I think the last Update was from New York so I’ll take off from there. After having nearly 3 weeks in New York we realized how expensive it can be there, so the last day found us running around trying to round up enough cash for a taxi to the Airport (New York Taxi’s don’t accept credit cards). Due to New Years Holidays in Australia and the US our banking had not been processed yet, and after 3 failed attempts at trying to remember my pin no. for my Australian card and it failed we had minimum options, The 1 bank open for the Holiday nearly let us use our credit card, before realisng that it was an Australian card and they were not allowed to use it. Belinda’s card couldn’t be used in the US ATM’s , so we were freaking out. We finally realized that we had some Australian Dollars in the bottom of the suitcase, so with crossed fingers we headed to a cash exchange shop to see if it was open. Luckily it was. However we still didn’t have enough for the flat rate cab charge to the airport, but with some sweet-talking by Belinda the cabbie gave in and accepted what we could give him. After another hour-long wait to get my plane ticket, courtesy of Flight centre (bastards) we were on our way to Seattle, without money to get a cab to the Hotel. Luckily enough by the time we arrived in Seattle my password had been reset and Belinda remembered my pin no. (funny that!!). Seattle is a pretty cool place, much slower paced then the others that we have been to. The first day we headed to the Seattle markets to find Pikes Fish Markets, one of Belinda’s ambitions for the trip, it was really cool. If you have seen the organisational motivational movie Fish, this is the Fish market from that, and it is exactly like that the whole day. These guys really enjoy their work and they all seem to have so much fun, making jokes, tossing the seafood around and scaring unwary passer buys with the large Monk Fish (see photo) that the have attached to a rope that they pull to make it move as people are looking at it, as if it is still alive. We visited a museum, which had a great exhibition on Louis Comfort Tiffany, Son of the famous Tiffany & Co. Owner, who created magical stained glass objects. Of course my main mission in Seattle was to try and absorb the now non-existent grunge scene. I visited many places where my favorite band Alice in chains performed like the Moore Theatre and the Crocodile Club, but it’s no use trying the capture the vibe from it after it’s gone. I did manage to find some cool bootlegs though so that was cool. (Belinda now has seen the inside of every used music shop in Seattle and knows exactly where to go in any shop to look for the CD’s I’m hunting down). Thanks to Jason who did a bit of research for me, but with only a few days and without a car we didn’t really get a chance to see much outside of the city center. Nighttime at Seattle is probably scarier than the other places because there is no police presence and the street are quite dark with heaps of bums scattered around everywhere. One the funniest thing was an old bum standing out side Tiffany & Co. with toilet paper scattered everywhere yelling out “I BEEN BAD, I BEEN BAD!!!” My Birthday on the 4th was really cool!! I got spoilt and we went to the space needle for lunch that was really cool, check out the photo of my Rocket ship desert!!! We headed out for a play that night and Belinda got fantastic tickets right at the front. It was an hilarious play set in the 1700’s with plenty of T&A for me. Belinda was included in the play when the main actor picked her out and he was proposing they should go out later on. After Seattle we headed down to San Francisco for a night before Driving to Napa and Sonoma for a few days at the wineries. There are hundreds of wineries in this area and we sampled as much as we could within the four days. We took a guided tour through the Domain Chandon Winery and had a self guided tour through the something winery which showed the art of making barrels, which was interesting, but wasted valuable drinking time!!! We also checked out the Old Geyser (Not the Famous one) which spurted out water 20 feet into the air every 10 minutes or so, the sign said it spurted 60 feet into the air but I guess it’s lost it’s stamina in it’s old age. We then headed to Yosemite National park, through very windy roads we witnessed the most awesome and astounding scenery, beautiful mountains toped with snow, old forests and huge waterfalls. We stayed at a really cozy Hostel called the Yosemite bug which had a big dining area with a warm fire and a friendly dog were we ate drank and met some very friendly folk from the UK and a lady from Belgim who now calls New York home. We walked a couple of tracks in Yosemite, taking a wrong turn somewhere on one which instead of being a 40 minute walk ended up being over 2 hours climbing over fallen trees, crossing flowing streams (think the bog of eternal stench in The Labyrinth, including sound effects by yours truly) and losing the path a couple of times. But we did see a bridge…. Oh and some of the most spectacular national park in the US. Mmmmm Beer….. where was I. Cool, we drove back to San Francisco for our last days in the US. Belinda and I decided we could easily live in San Fran. The people are friendly, It’s not as expensive as New York and the weather is fantastic. B really enjoyed the Cable Cars, which are Similar to trams but move buy a mass underground network of steel cables that the cars grab onto to be towed along and then released to stop, which is helpful as a lot of the streets a quite hilly. We visited Alcatraz, which was really cool, and as it was Al Scarface Capone’s birthday a volunteer in the prisons dinner hall treated us to a life story. It was interesting learning that at the time, he was wealthier than Bill Gates today, and although he murdered over 1,000 people, was jailed for tax invasion, because the Law had been changed so that Illegally made money was required to be taxed???? Go figure huh! He was also the person who came up with the idea of labeling milk bottles with an expiration date to stop children becoming sick from sour milk, and was in partnership with the dude who created the mechanical bunny that races around the greyhound tracks (that was before he killed him of course). A money hungry punter, he still needed more money and always picked the winner on these races, not just through intuition though. No Capone made sure all except one dog was fed before the race so he could bet on the hungry dog chasing the rabbit and of course pocket the winnings. We had an interesting night out one night; we went to an Irish Pub, which had an Indian restaurant, and a huge American flag on the ceiling. After having a really nice dinner I realized that I had left my wallet at the hotel, an hour round trip by cable car. Having not washed dishes for two months we didn’t even offer and B had to wait at the bar while I trekked back home to get some cash to pay for dinner. While I was away B was talking to a guy who said he was in a band, thinking that he was in a local band she did't ask the name of the band straight up. It wasn't until he was telling her that the band turned down the offer of touring with the 2006 Big Day Out because they hadn't finished recording their new album that she asked the name of the Band... AFI. I bought one of their CD's a couple of years ago so B knew who they were and stuff. B thought she was pretty cool then, but she didn’t introduce me to him. So that was the only real brush of fame we had in the states. (Hey Kerris don’t forget we saw Delta too! (Big excitment let me tell you). Delta Goodrem and her boyfriend Brian Mc Fadden were on our flight from LA to London – I was the one who spotted her of course.... I think the real Louis Vitton bag was what gave it away)! So from San Fran we had to make our way to Los Angeles to catch our flight to London. We decided the cheapest way to get there was buy bus. So we caught an 11 hour bus to LA, with no sleep, slept for a couple of hours in a hotel near the airport, got stuffed around for an hour and a half getting tickets (flight centre really does suck!!!) ran to duty free to grab some necesseties (alcohol & smokes) and enjoyed a 11 hour sleepless flight to London. So we have finally made it to London in one piece and still in love after 8 weeks of just mostly ourselves for company (and a few drink and dials back home!) We are staying at friends of B’s Pauline and David who are wonderful, extremely hospitable and have heaps of advice for us after living in London for the past 5 or so years. Their nieces Olivia and Angela and Olivia’s fiancée Gert are also staying here too so it is a full house but it’s great to also have some company our age too. Well today is Australia Day so I’d better head back home because we are heading out tonight to catch up with some fellow antipodeans at the Walkabout pub in Covent Garden (I don’t think we really know what we are in for)! Take care all and will talk you soon. Ciao for now Xxooxxoo K & B

Washington DC & New York City
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: No more xmas carols.... please
Washington DC
We had heaps of fun in Washington there is tons to see and do (and mostly it’s free)! We had a tour of Capitol (that is their spelling not ours) Hill where the house of reps and the senate make all the big decisions with the purse strings and laws that bind the US. We got hold of special passes and went in and saw the house of reps debating live in action about a new bill. If this bill is passed they’ll be able to prosecute people who are found to be or have very recently been in the company of a prostitute. Groundbreaking stuff huh – now if only this law was around when Hugh Grant hooked up with the lovely Miss Devine Brown!!! The Capitol Hill tour was great and the iterior of the building is beautiful, the round dome at the top is huge and can fit several houses inside it and has an amazing painting on the inside, which reflects American History that looks real. There are also paintings around the circular wall of different major events in American history that are so lifelike like they look like statues. Other cool stuff we saw in Washington included the Lincoln Memorial which is a tribute to President Abraham Lincoln and the nation he fought to preserve during the Civil War (1861-1865). The Lincoln Memorial was built to resemble a Greek temple. It has 36 Doric columns, one for each state at the time of Lincoln’s death. A sculpture by Daniel Chester French of a seated Lincoln is in the center of the memorial chamber. We went and saw it at night and it was freezing cold but really beautiful because, when you look North (I think that was the direction from memory) from the memorial you look over the lake and towards Capitol Hill. The next on our list was the Washington Monument (a giant phallus 14 inches shorter than Capitol Hill – before approval is given for construction of a building in Washington the design must be no higher than Capitol Hill). So no huge sky scrapers in Washington, well compared with NY Washington’s got nothin’ on the height of the buildings here.

We met 2 cool and very friendly locals by chance after Kerris convinced me to “come in for just one drink” at a bar that was about 4 buildings away from our guesthouse. Ken works for a government agency and knew heaps about Australia and was very savvy on world politics. He has had a lot of interaction with Aussies and even mentioned that the Australian Embassy in Washington had the best happy hour of them all and his fave Aussie Beer is Crownies! Nunu is a PR exec with a music company (which we’d never heard of) and has lived in the US for most of her life. Originally from Sudan her father relocated her family here about 20 years ago and after talking to these guys we worked out that she is actually a princess back in Sudan as her uncle was the Vice President of Sudan. Anyway great people, v friendly and we stumbled home about 2.30am after “just one drink”. You could spend heaps of time in Washington there is so much to see and do but after 6 full days of museums and memorials we were all museumed out for a little while.

December 15th 2005 – January 1, 2006 NYC

Wooohoooo I ? NY this place is awesome, amazing and so full of life all day and night. We arrived in NY a day earlier than originally planned so K could go to the Roadrunner Records Gig. This gig was a collection of past and present musicians from bands like Slipknot, Machinehead, Sepultura, Death, and other freaky names (but K assures me that they play good music). I had a fabulous night in with a good chick flick and room service. The next day we checked into the (very chic) Hudson Hotel a for 3 nights ( I could so get used to this). It is so swanky that it doesn’t even have a sign outside on the street – lucky the taxi driver (who would have to be the smuttiest taxi driver in the whole of Manhattan) knew where it was.


Mission #8 find hairdresser. On good recommendation by the concierge I ended up getting the do done at a swanky salon (to match the hotel of course).

Lesson # 8 even if your stylist has cut the tresses of Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis, do not, I repeat do not give them liberty with the scissors. I’m now sporting a very (short) “organic” (in the words of Sean James the stylist) new NY do! I had a fabulous birthday, got spoiled rotten and we went and saw Chicago on Broadway. We loved the show, K particularly liked the costumes, or lack of should I say.

We spent the next couple of days on sightseeing buses touring around New York learning about the city’s history and visiting the Empire State Building, Wall Street (see pic of Bronzed Bull), Rockefeller Centre, 5th
Avenue, Macy?s, Brooklyn, and Ground Zero. Oh and when we got to Brooklyn for the tour guess who fell asleep??? I think he took the Beastie Boy’s song a bit too literally.

Nothing could have prepared us for how we felt when we stood in front of the World Trade Centre Site. However on a brighter note we got to experience first hand, the “New York fighting spirit” when for three days the subways and buses came to a halt during the first transit strike since 1980 and more than 8 million people walked for miles and miles to get into Manhattan to work in the freezing weather. K reckons that if he had to walk all that way in the freezing cold he might have taken a rain check on work for those couple of days!

Unfortunately we didn’t get any snow for Christmas – only rain. Apparently this is the first Christmas in forever when it hasn’t snowed. Santa still managed to find us and spoiled us both. Thanks to everyone for your Christmas wishes and phone calls. We celebrated Christmas dinner at Tavern on The Green in Central Park where we drank and ate far too much delicious food and wine (just like you’re supposed to at Christmas).

For the past week we have explored Central Park on foot and we also went for a very romantic horse and carriage ride as well. We scored free passes to the Guggenheim Museum and also went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and explored SOHO and Greenwich Village. B went on a Sex and the City tour where she got to see tons of locations where they filmed episodes and had a cosmo in Aiden and Steve’s bar Scout. Whilst she was well and truly occupied I went scouting the town for music shops and can you believe it…… it starts snowing!!! It was beautiful and only lasted an hour but at least now we have seen snow falling. We managed to wrangle our way into a perfect viewing possie in Times Square to watch the “ball” (which I reckon is so much smaller in real life than it looks on TV) drop at midnight with 999 998 of our closest friends. It was spectacular, however New York has nothing on the fireworks Brisvegas puts on for Riverfire and NYE.

Tomorrow night we head over to Seattle for 10 days and Kerris’ Birthday. Kerris is at the moment trying to roll all our clothes up very small so they will fit in the suitcase, we seem to have accumulated way too much stuff but no surprises there.

Happy New Year to everyone and we wish you a successful, healthy and fabulous 2006. Thanks for the comments and emails everyone left / sent – it’s great to hear from you. We have added some new photos on for your vouyeristic pleasure!

Ciao for now
Xxxx B & K

Washington & New York Photos

From South Miami Beach to Washington DC and everywhere in between!!!
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: Frosty the snowman.....
Welcome to Washington DC the Capital of the US where the incessant beeping of automobile horns and wailing sirens of Police, Ambulance and Fire never stops! But before we tell you about DC we need to go back..... back in time and take off from where we left you last……

Ok so in South Miami Beach the weather was warm and mostly sunny! We did lots of window shopping, walking and went bike riding. Most people here speak Spanish and they find it hard to understand us. (I’m trying to avoid imitating the American accent thou.) So after some glorious days in South Miami Beach we decided to rent a car and drive, (yes you read that right) on the other side of the bloody road! Kerris had first honours and headed South along US 1 for 3.5hrs. Driving through the Florida Keys was beautiful, aqua blue water and white sandy beaches. We drove 100 miles and across 40 bridges and arrived in Key West which is the Southern most town in the US.

Kerris not very impressed after going for a walk just after sundown came back to our hotel and pronounced “this place is Hicksville”. Guess we’ll just be staying one night then huh! Monica was our waitress at dinner and told us just how real the hurricane season is down in the south. They either batten down the hatches and get the hell out or they lock themselves in the local pubs and drink till the storm passes. When we were driving along the US 1 the evidence of the destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma was alongside the road everywhere stuff like piles of whitegoods, furniture and debris and Kerris reckons it smelt like poo.

Other stuff we did in Key West included eating Key Lime Pie, visited Ernest Hemmingway’s house, (Kerris said to tell you that Hemmingway was an Author who wrote such books as “For Whom the Bell Tolls” just in case you didn’t know) where there are more than 40 six toed cats before getting wasted away in Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Key West Café! Did I mention I rediscovered a taste for Tequila! We also Had a brief visit at Bahia Honda State Park where the lookout to the ocean is amazing!!

So as Kerris was in charge of driving (I’m not 25 yet) we headed north the next day out of Hicksville. But not before Kerris drove our brand new Stratus, Chrysler rental car too close to the kerb and left a nice signature on the wheel cover. Good one Kerris – might have to check the Visa statement to see if Thrifty noticed it!

Ok so we headed north back along the US 1, trying not to breathe to much. We weren’t to sure where we wanted to go so we stayed a night in Ft Lauderdale, which is 1 hours north of Miami. After a good nights sleep we decided that we needed some thrills and excitement and the theme parks of Orlando were calling. We picked up some tickets along the way that were advertising every half a mile about cheap tickets from “Yeehaw”. So we bought our “Cheap” tickets ($700 later) and cruise on up.

The first Day we went to Magic Kingdom, which was our favorite park. From the parking lot you catch a tram to the monorail or boat, which then transport you a mile across a manmade lake that surrounds magic Kingdom. Kerris had been hanging out for the new Lilo and Stich ride since seeing it at Yeehaw and that was the first ride we went on – MEENA KNWANA KWESTER!!!! We also went on Buzz Lightyear’s ride, Space Mountain which was a space rollercoaster that was in complete darkness with little stars every where and many others. In the afternoon we watched the Walt Disney Christmas parade with all of the Disney characters, followed by the spectromagic light show after dark. The highlight of the day, and of our experience at the theme parks was definitely the amazing fireworks above the Magic Castle with music. It started with Tinkerbell lighting up the castle and flying down a huge flying fox. Stuff dreams and wishes are made of!

The next day we went to Epcot, heaps more fun ride’s. Belinda favourite of the day was Soarin’ which was just like you were flying over lots of famous and different places across the US. We also traveled on a ride through the massive Epcot ball and visited all the international exhibits and rode the Speedway racetrack a car testing ride. Awesome stuff.
Day 3 was Universal Studios or maybe it was Disney MGM Studios I can’t really remember (that will teach us for not updating the webpage sooner!). Universal was cool and had the Shrek, Back to the Future, Twister and Mummy rides and a Fear Factor Live show where some people from the Audience volunteered to drink the most disgusting and gross milkshake of raw meat, sour milk, worms and insects all for no apparent motivation other than that they get off on doing stupid stuff like that (there was no free stuff involved – go figure huh!) It was so awful we were dry reaching. Anyway enough of grossing you out. Beside Universal is Adventure Island where the really good rides are and here we went on the Hulk coaster, Spider man ride and the fire dragon coaster. Then we had the dumb idea of going on the Popeye tube ride where we got absolutely soaked.

Disney MGM Studios was day four (Kerris remembered) and had the Beauty and the Beast show and Indiana Jones stuntshow with that’s right you guessed it….. more rides.

Day 5 was back to Magic Kingdom to finish off the rides we didn’t get to the first time and to buy some souvenirs. They had the most beautiful Christmas gift shop with lots of decorations for the Christmas tree. Day 6 – Raining our first rainy day of our holiday so we decided to do lunch at the biggest hard rock café in the world – Hard Rock Orlando. Took some great photos of Slash and Steve Vai’s guitars and even saw a poster for the Nirvana Tour in Australia in the 90’s (I miss home – wish we were going to the Big Day Out :o( ).

Anyway back to the story after Hard Rock we caught a Movie at the Universal Studios and then decided that as we were flying out the next day we should do a test run to the airport and find out where to drop the rental car off. We found our way to the Airport ok and then Kerris decided that we should drive our rental car into the Thrifty compound to find out how often they have busses running to the airport. Lesson # 6 do not drive your rental car into the lot until you are ready to return it UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PINK SLIP. Pink slip??? I hear you say yes that is what we said too when the guy on the out gate wouldn’t let us back out till we showed him the pink slip. 45mins later after Kerris waited in the queue we had a copy of our pink slip (which we’d left back at the resort) and we were finally allowed to drive out of the Thrifty compound.

Lesson # 7 the next day we went to check in for our flights to Washington DC which I had paid for and changed with Qantas THEY DIDN’T HAVE OUR BOOKING!!! BLOODY TRAVEL AGENT. Anyway $350 bux later we bought 2 more tickets to Miami where we changed flights with a 3.5hr wait (love waiting at airports….not) to Washington DC. And that is where we are now. It SNOWED the night before we flew in and we only knew this coz of a lovely gal called Michelle who we sat next to on the flight here. We are no longer snow virgins – although we haven’t seen the snow actually falling yet but they reckon it will on Thursday. So far we have been to the Art Museum, Spy Museum and the Museum of American History. Oh and for all of you sweating your asses off back home – it is bloody freezing here it is about 20 - 30 degrees Fahrenheit which in Celsius is about 0 or -5 (I think) anyway freezing, numbing, cold.

Thank you to those of you who sent us messages after our last update. We are starting to feel a little homesick so it is great to hear from you. Keep the messages coming and we will try to update you a bit more regularly. On Thursday we head up to NYC (only 5 sleeps to my Birthday)! Kerris is going to go to Road Runner Records 25th Anniversary (a metal gig) so I think I might just snuggle up with a good book. Take care and have fun doing the Christmas shopping and drinking at the Christmas parties!!!! We are having some technical difficulties with uploading the photos – so stay tuned for more photos.

Love to youse all K & B xxxxoool

Travel Journel 1
Mood:  caffeinated
Coming to you from Cyber Caffe Washington St South Miami Beach! Local time is now 9.22pm.

Howdy ho neighbour a big 'hi' to ya'll from B&K.

Lets start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.....Duty Free Shopping!!!!! Nearly spent all our $$$ on niccotine, jack daniels silver select and 2 x bottles of Moet (B couldn't help herself). Flight good, plane food 3/5, but crap bourbon (Kerris). Got some zzzz's and landed at LAX at 12 noon local time. Palm trees and the Mc Rib is back.... welcome to LA.

Hotel - small but clean & v good location.

Mission #1
Buy Metro underground train tickets from machine that takes $1 bills. Only had notes from Dad & Jenny & the bloody machine wouldn't take them, 45 minutes, some coins given to us from a dude who thought we were street bums, and a lot of swearing later we had 2 x tix (thank f#%k for that).

Lesson #1 Make sure you always have plenty of $1 bills.

Lesson #2 Nothing is free - you have to tip a bum for giving him a smoke, not really, but just about for everything else.

Mission #2
Find Hollywood Blvd we had map & directions from the concierge but do you think we could find it?? Got off @ wrong stop - had smoke & swapped directions for a cigarette. Sorted! Omigod!!!! HOLLYWOOD!!!
Everyone has a dream.....what is your dream baby? See some photos from the walk of fame (go to links below). Scored some free tix to see this talk show called Jimmy Kimmel Live! (Its on ch ABC here in the US at midnight. Anyway to shorten our story we got stooged that night & ended up going to see it the next night. On the show he i/v'd Anthony LaPaglia (Aussie actor from US TV show) and some actress called Amy Smart and to top it off we saw DEF LEPARD LIVE (playing a few newies and Photograph & Pour some sugar on me in the parking lot!!!!) Oh and not to forget the cartoon characters / streetbums doing a rendition of the history of thanksgiving.

Lesson #3 - It is at this point that we would like to ensure our readers get some good ol US education.

TURDUCKEN - this is a delicacy & fairly new innovation. Put simply they take the turkey; take out bones and stuff; insert a duck then some stuffing, then a chicken; then some more stuffing and tie it all up and sew it back together. There you have it mmmm Turducken. Coming to Red Rooster soon!!!

Ok so the rest of the trip has been good you will also see pix of our bus trips around Hollywood, Beverley Hills, the Hollywood Music Bowl including one photo of Carmen Electra and Dave Navaro's front driveway & the Cat Club where the Gunners used to play.

Mission #3
Thought we'd be adventurous travellers & catch the train to LAX for our flight that left at 9.18am.

Lesson #4
Give yourself plenty of time to get to the airport(TO DE AIRPORDT!!!)

We turned up nearley 2 hours before our flight was to leave, as advised by the bus boy, only to be frigged around for 40 minutes trying to get Kerris' ticket because they spelt my last name with an O (p.s. b and i are tag teaming this blog for smoke brakes, so esques gramma, and spelling for a bit) finally we got on our plane, not sitting next to each other and very late after being lead through to the security check to the "express lane". NOT!! it took so long and the other people in the slow lane went threw easily while we got extra checked.

But this was all forgotten when we boarded the plane in Dallas and we had First class seats for the leg to Miami. We could so get used to that!!!

The Art Deco Historical District in South Beach Miami is beautiful - our first hotel "The Dorchester" was heritage listed. Bloody travel agent stuffed up again (they didn't have our booking) then we got upgraded to a suite!!! Bought a 6 pack of Corona's and we were set. Yesterday was hot about 28 degrees and we spent the day getting our heads around the place & finding somewere to stay (thank god for the Lonely Planet) and had some down time at the Cinema watching Harry Potter (its v good - go & c it)! Got back to our room and they'd locked us out. After some more swearing and cursing we got our room key rewritten and were ready to hit the town.

Met some cool people @ dinner who were v friendly and nice who (used to) live in New Orleans - it just goes to show that not even a hurricane can dampen the spirit of some people. Some dinner, 2 clubs later we headed home for our first session of drink & dial. $50 and a few mins later it was all over. Today we moved house to the Clay Hotel where we are staying for the next 4 days.

Mission #4 - Catch return bus from Bayside Mall in Downtown Miami. Walking, walking, walking, walking (no C bus stops anywhere). And no matter how refined our map reading skills are since our sailing training - we still had not a clue how to find where we had to go to catch the bus. Thank god for locals. Hailed bus on side of road and now back in South Beach. TTFN Next installment coiming soon.
Love youse all K & B xxx ooo