Sunday, 31 August

Just a quick update to note I've had a report from Russell Bradley that the Cambridge page is not working on his Windows machine. I had originally tested it on two Windows machines at work (ahem, I'm sure it was lunchtime or similar...) I did have to make a change to the javascript which opens the new window however and can't recall now if I've tested it since then. (Works fine here!) In any case, if the other links do not work for you, you may be able to open it directly here as this link does not use javascript. Enjoy!

Saturday, 30 August

When I blog I lie. I have read it said that the blogging phenomenon is about a writer publishing their undiluted raw thoughts and emotions. The impression given seems to be that this makes it somehow a more "pure" medium than other publishing. I don't believe any of this for a minute. The "truth" is, every blog is for an audience just like any other form of public expression. There may be some in the blogosphere who seem unfiltered; I'd guess it is more exhibitionism than accidental self-disclosure. However, I choose to admit that thinking back over my blog entries, my writing doesn't always directly reflect my inner state. Maybe I'll change that a little more over the coming months... Maybe sooner.

Last night we had dinner with a good friend. She is going through a tough time at the moment. However, in the course of our discussions the topic came round to me and as we talked I started to realise just how unhappy I am with the way certain things are set up with my work currently. On one level I'd already known things weren't right but things became a lot clearer as we talked. I'm starting to see a road ahead from here. It may involve some significant changes for me over the next six months, possibly a lot sooner. I went home with a lot to think about and my thought processes sent me along another pathway as well. Bronwyn and I sat up till after 2am talking about some important stuff. It wasn't a completely easy conversation but I think we've sown the seeds of future growth.

Today for the first time since we moved to London in March, I went into work on a Saturday. I'm realising more and more that one of the things which causes me the most chronic, background stress is when I have pieces of work that have been hanging over my head for weeks or months (or in one current case, years...) I've written about this before, in fact. Often finishing these takes far less time than I expect when I can carve out space in the usual week-to-week demands. Anyway, yesterday I decided that I valued having a somewhat cleaner slate more than I valued my Saturday. So I walked the 20 minutes to work today and spent about six hours in there. I wrote six reports, two letters, and my part of a further report. I'm essentially up to date now with my immediate work, where previously I was seriously behind. Next-week-Duncan will thank me for my sacrifice.

Sunday, 24 August
babbage.tv launch

Today is the launch of our new internet domain... From now on babbage.tv will be our permanent home in cyberspace. This domain was given to me for my birthday by housemates Nick and Hayley, who truly understand my desire to be an ubergeek. My birthday was over a month ago now, but it has taken a while to get the electronic ducks in a row... um, so to speak. Firstly, while they suggested babbage.tv as a possibility, they offered to register any domain of my choosing. We spent quite a bit of time looking, and were startled to discover that almost every word and expression known to man has already been registered by someone. Often these just have placeholder sites on them, while someone waits and hopes to make money re-selling it later. To give just one example, if you were thinking of launching your new web site on www.cybertomato.com you're too late... To check out this phenomenon for yourself, try BuyDomains.com. In any case, this web site can now be viewed at the new domain: click through now to babbage.tv. In the future the site may not be viewable at the old address, and the new one is just much cooler, so please update your bookmarks now. Thanks Nick and Hayley!  : )

Today I've also brought online our photos from our trip to Cambridge, waaay back in May. I had some particular ideas about how the photo page should work. My ideas out-dreamed my current knowledge, so I've had to teach myself quite a bit of javascript this weekend. It hasn't had the level of testing we usually give a new page. In particular, I've never seen it on a Windows machine so I'm just hoping it ain't broke. Please email me and let me know if it is working for you. Be warned: I've tried to make it dialup friendly but if you want to view all the photos it won't be lightning fast.

Tomorrow is a bank holiday here. We've been taking things nice and quietly here this weekend, in contrast to the last month or so. We've mostly been around the house, though we went out to visit the ducks at Wimbledon Park yesterday. This morning we enjoyed being back at our church at Worple Road after a number of recent absences. Due to the bank holiday however more than half of the members of the church were away. Tomorrow we're going on an outing, planning to visit both Bronwyn's old school in Hackney and her new school in East Sheen. We're thinking of having a picnic in Richmond Park. This park, the largest open space in London, was formalised in 1637 when Charles I had the Park enclosed behind an eight mile long wall encircling 2500 acres. The park is home to wild deer, a wide variety of other animal and bird life, and apparently over 200 species of beetles. Just like your garden really, only a bit bigger.

Tuesday, 19 August

Bronwyn and Stephanie arrived home safe and sound, though a little late last night, at 11.30pm. I'm yet to hear about their exploits though expect that will happen this evening. The did telephone me a little after 9pm though to say they'd just watched the sun set over Stonehenge, which seems about as good a way as any to spend a Monday evening... Unfortunately, when they got back to our flat in the rental car they discovered someone had parked in our parking space. Considering we pay for this park as part of our rent, it was frustrating to not be able to use it on the first occasion we've wanted it in six months. They braved the resident's parking zone without a permit and fortunately emerged unscathed.

Today is Stephanie's last full day in London before she heads up to Scotland. After returning the rental car, the girls have decided to go to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace today, followed by seeing Richard the II at Shakespeare's Globe theatre. If they still have time further museums and galleries beckon. As for me, I'll be having another action-packed day at work.

I am waiting. I am waiting for something in particular. The waiting is not fun. I have been waiting for some months now, though recently the waiting became more expectant. As the end of the waiting is near it seems all the worse. In most ways the year has seemed to fly by. How can both days and months pass like weeks at the same time? Please don't read too much into this... I'm not waiting for anything deep or spiritual. I'm just waiting for something. I'll let you know when the waiting is over!

Sunday, 17 August

We've spent the weekend in Bristol, two and a half hours away by bus. Stephanie proposed a visit to that part of the world as the family had an address for where two pairs of Bronwyn's great- great- grandparents were each living at one stage, both in Bristol.

On Saturday...
Bristol is near Bath, a place considered so historically valuable that the entire town has been listed as a World Heritage site. Having arrived in Bristol by bus on Friday night, we decided to visit Bath on Saturday. A two hour walking tour, provided free by local volunteers, introduced us to the highlights of the town. The entire town is built from a local honey-coloured limestone, which is quite beautiful though regrettably not terribly durable. Nonetheless, by local bylaw no building may be constructed out of anything else. Construction in the town is also severely limited, and population has thus been static at around 80,000 for some time. With limits on development and expensive materials, the price of a house in Bath is astronomical, but the visual effect of the warm stone and the substantial preserved green space is probably worth it.

Talking of astronomical, while in Bath I visited the small museum in the home of William Herschell. This gentleman is widely regarded as the world's greatest stargazer and was a self-taught astronomer of some note. His greatest contribution to science was the discovery of the planet Uranus, which at the time doubled the size of the known solar system. The discovery was made in his back garden, using a small but powerful telescope he built himself. My visit wasn't particularly prompted by an interest in Astronomy (though I did take one paper in the subject once) but rather a family connection. William Herschell's son was John Herschell, who went on to become the Royal Astronomer himself. John Herschell was also a close friend of my great- great- great- great- grandfather, Charles Babbage. It's been a while, and I thought I should pop in to pass on the family's respects!

While I was at the Herschell museum, Bronwyn and Stephanie went to the Costume Museum, which by all reports was also good. The museum displayed clothing from throughout the ages, illustrating the development through to our clothing today. I am afraid though that without them present I am unable to give you further information at this stage... While in Bath we of course visited the Roman Baths, which partly date back to the first century BC. They were excellent, but rather than cover existing ground, I'm temped to point you towards our housemates' blog for their description of the baths, as their visit preceded ours. See their July page, starting from July 11th!   : )

Today...
This morning we went to a large, lively, and beautiful Church of England church in Bristol for a worship service. The atmosphere was welcoming and it was nice once again to experience the global interconnectedness of the Christian community. Following this we set off with the aim of finding the addresses of Bronwyn and Stephanie's forebears... Having obtained further information we discovered the addresses were close enough to our location to walk, and we reached there in about 20 minutes. The two addresses turned out to be within two minutes walk of each other. One of the houses was unfortunately completely gone, apparently replaced by an industrial property. The other, if the correct address, did not to my untrained eye appear to be the late 1800s building we were looking for. A woman at the Tourist Information office told us that area had been damaged by bombing in WWII, and that a systematic programme had also been undertaken to demolish low grade housing in the area. It was still good for Bronwyn and Stephanie to be able to trace a little of their history.

Following this, with the fortuitous arrival of a bus, I hightailed it back to the coach station to return to London. Bronwyn and Stephanie jumped ship along route, to visit a local church renowned for its beauty. And that was the last I saw of them. The evening thus finds me back at home, sitting up late, sort of waiting for Bronwyn to come to bed. I know she's not here, so there is little point waiting. It is always strange to have your spouse away. Bronwyn and Stephanie are staying a further night in Bristol, where they'll pick up a rental car and visit further family history sites and places of interest on the way home tomorrow.

Next weekend is a bank holiday Monday here. We'd generally intended to go out of London for the weekend on each bank holiday weekend, and the upcoming weekend is the last bank holiday till Christmas. However, I think we've done enough travelling of late - we'll be staying put next weekend. Anyway, the Sunday Times reported that Harrods has opened their Christmas display today...

Thursday, 14 August

"Paris is enchanting"... I wrote, "Paris is enchanting"  That is so... naff. Clearly, I must have been, (enchanted that is), because there's no other excuse for such gratuitous bathos... May I apologise to all our readers for any queasiness caused. We wish you a speedy recovery.

Wednesday, 13 August

Re-entry from Paris to the working week on Monday was reminiscent of flaming asteroids in the stratosphere, only slower and with less motivation to achieve anything big. Monday night though saw a rush into the city with the girls who'd been at the Natural History Museum during the day. We'd pre-booked tickets for a "flight" on the London Eye, a sky-scraping Ferris wheel that is quite the engineering marvel. A phone call before we left revealed that, as had happened on the last few days, the London Eye had been closed during the afternoon as it had become too hot to operate it. We were booked for 8pm however, and they were hopeful it would re-open. Hope was rewarded as it did open again about 7:30pm and we were treated to half an hour of remarkable and certainly unique views across Westminster, out to Green Park and Buckingham Palace, and around the London Skyline. We liked it.

Not to be outdone by Monday, Tuesday treated us to attendance at the Lion King after a surprisingly good Italian dinner at a restaurant in a chain dubiously called Pizza Express. Italian is clearly back on the menu again after our Tuscany trip. The Lion King was spectacular, and well worth the visit. It is sold out every night, so there was no chance of discounted prime tickets. As a result we elected to sit at a more affordable distance from the stage. The view was still good, the macro-puppetry skills of the performers impressive, and the chorus singing African music suitably stirring. Bronwyn and I have never seen the film, despite positive intentions. We'll probably need to now.

Carolyn left us this evening to return to New Zealand. While I predictably went to work today, the girls had gone into the city to visit another gallery. By the time I got home from work Carolyn was essentially packed, tea was about to be served, and then Carolyn and Bronwyn were rushing out the door on their way to the airport. Leaving here at 6:20pm, it took them 1 hour 10 minutes to Heathrow, a good run on the tubes. Carolyn checked in at a suitable interval but after a few tears on both sides had to head through the doors on her way home. Bronwyn tubed and taxied home to be back here a little after 10pm. Carolyn's trip will take a little longer: she won't land in Wellington till 4.30am Friday our time (3.30pm NZ time), with about 4 hours of stopover divided between Bangkok and Sydney. Flights aside, Carolyn has travelled in the style I prefer: she was glad to come, and she's glad to be going home. Travel safely Carolyn, and God bless. We miss you already.

[OK. I admit it. All the Paris entries were uploaded today.]   : )

Sunday, 10 August  Paris

Last night I was determined not to be overheated again and so moved my mattress out onto our sixth floor balcony and slept under the stars, with the Eiffel Tower visible in the distance. Sleep was much easier though it cooled off enough to need a t-shirt. I woke at 4am still too cool and I decided it had obviously been unnecessary to sleep outside as it was so much cooler. I went inside to get a duvet. Although all the windows in the room and the door were wide open, as I stepped back in the window I was hit with a wall of heat. It was like stepping from an air conditioned shopping mall into the Sydney summer heat. Lack of air circulation had left the girls once again sweltering inside, which I fell back to sleep cosy under my duvet. Odd.

We packed up and headed out early, leaving our bags at the hostel for the day. The metro and RER took us to the Louvre as planned, though with a later than planned departure and slightly less frequent services we arrived a little after our 9am target. This target was important as we'd arranged to meet Bronwyn's other sister Stephanie, straight off a plane from New Zealand, at the base of the 22 metre glass pyramid. Well, it didn't matter as she was held up too and we finally met at 9:45am. We'd been keen to go to the Louvre on Sunday primarily because Stephanie wanted to see it, but also because the Lonely Planet said they had English language tours then. We're committed fans of the local tour - you generally see a lot less and understand a lot more, both of which reduce tourism fatigue. Unfortunately investigations revealed that English tours did not in fact run on Sundays after all. Audio guides provided some information but were no substitute... The Louvre is massive, and you can see only a fraction in a day. We saw the obligatory Mona Lisa, which as reported by others was profoundly unimpressive. I'm glad I saw it for that reason alone. There were other interesting art works, with a collection of French Royal jewellery probably in the forefront. If I visit again (possibly when I'm next in Paris in about six weeks' time) I'll do research beforehand and identify the location of a number of specific paintings I wish to see. I'm liking art more as time goes on, but as with most things I want to know much more about the object I'm viewing than just artist and the year painted. Give us some geo-politico-historical background, people!

The day mostly spent, it was time to make plans to depart. We wanted Stephanie to be able to see the Eiffel Tower from closer than just the window of the Louvre. We needed to make preparations to leave also though. A deal was struck. I travelled back to our hostel, picking up the luggage left there by Carolyn, Bronwyn and me. (Travel light people, it creates opportunities!) Meanwhile the girls went to the Eiffel Tower for a whistle-stop tour. From there Bronwyn and Carolyn headed for Gard du Nord station, the departure point for the Eurostar and where I'd already arrived with our luggage. Stephanie remained on their train and continued on to the airport, as she was flying to London while we went by rail. Sometimes things just work out strange. Unfortunately, the Eurostar wasn't running quite to time on Sunday. We queued with thousands of other travellers, forced to wait till after our "departure" time to even check in, and then the staff had the gall to tell us to run or we'd miss the train. The problems arose because an earlier service had been delayed, and the trains have to meet specific timeslot windows to go through the Channel Tunnel. In Carolyn's words, it was an "ordeal". When we booked we'd paid extra to get home at a reasonable hour, as I had work in the morning. As it was we got home about 10:30pm. We'll think twice though have to admit we'll probably still travel on the Eurosnail again; even with deeply discounted air travel here, flight taxes make the train cheaper.

Saturday, 9 August  Paris

This is supposed to be a blog of thoughts and experiences; not a weather channel franchise. Therefore, I'm not going to mention the temperature yet again. However, I will say that for undisclosed environmental reasons, Paris is uncomfortable. Last night was far worse even than it had been during the day yesterday. Eventually in a state of despair I relocated from my top bunk in the Hostel to sleeping on the floor, as it was more comfortable. Peace and Love hostel it may be, but right now I'd trade for War and Ice. Despite this we can't deny that Paris is enchanting. We dragged ourselves out of the hostel around 11am, having all managed to finally get some limited sleep as the sun began to rise again. With shopping on our minds (well, for most of us) we headed to an enormous, and more importantly underground, shopping mall. We found a McDonalds and agreed to meet there again in an hour. The girls found me an hour, a Grand Jus D'Oranges, and a website-update-draft later, having not actually left the McDonalds. Sadly no shoes were purchased, despite apparently clear intent. Lunch of freshly toasted panini was made interesting by the discovery they make them out of baby baguettes in France. Finally, sufficiently cooled we headed out of our underground, air-conditioned paradise.

The afternoon's plan was to visit the Notre Dame cathedral, arriving in time to attend the 2:30pm tour in English. Our guide was a small but enthusiastic, presumably French, woman who clearly cared a great deal for the history of the cathedral and of Paris. While we met inside the cathedral for the one hour tour she immediately took us back outside into the blazing sun to talk about the external sculptures and the surrounding buildings. We began to wonder about the length of the tour as the minutes ticked by and we stood in the direct light and heat. It was finally 45 minutes before she led us back into the building itself. She did move a little more quickly here, and while overall the tour was perhaps a little... thorough... it was interesting. The construction of these buildings was a remarkable feat. A war memorial inside injected a small piece of New Zealand into the visit.

The cathedral is on the main island in the Seine, and we crossed from there to wander along the South Bank through the little shops and restaurants. (It almost goes without saying that glace was consumed.) We found a small fountain and joined the crowds soaking our feet - bliss in the heat with inexplicably icy cool water. A local restaurant was selected which offered a menu, which is a fixed-price menu rather than ordering a la carte. We shared an entree of escargot. All of us tried them; two of us ate them. (Names deleted to protect the somewhat queasy.) The rest of the meal was good, though inevitably less distinctive. From the restaurant, we finished the evening with a night river cruise. We settled on the company which operated the largest boats, which seat over 1000 people, as they offered the longest and least expensive trips. The boat turned out to be better than many others we'd seen, as we sat on the top deck with an unrestricted view out over the river and buildings. The quad-lingual commentary (French, English, German and Japanese) was stunningly clear from their sound system, though admittedly somewhat abbreviated by the need to keep repeating themselves. The river gave excellent views of the city that were of course quite different from those from the Eiffel Tower. River cruises have joined the official list of "good things to do when you visit a city".

Friday, 8 August  Paris

After an uneventful Eurostar journey this morning we arrived at our hostel about 11am. The Metro here is only slightly more confusing than London's underground and is surprisingly affordable. A single Carnet ticket for €1 (75p or NZ$2) will take you from any city metro station to any other, regardless of the number of transfers between lines required. We thus arrived at Bir-Hakeim station without major incident and wandered round the corner to see the Eiffel Tower rising before us.

After a London-priced meal in a little Bistro nearby, we attacked the Tower. €6.50 allowed us the privilege of walking up the stairs for the first two levels, which takes you about 1/3 of the way up the tower. The much longer queues of people were for those who wanted an elevator this far - at double the price. From level two all are equal and we caught an elevator to the top. We'd been told to expect a 30 minute wait at this level so were surprised to find about 10 people in the queue. We were up in 3 minutes. The views from the Tower are excellent, despite the haze in the air this weekend. Each level gives a new perspective on the city from a different angle. It was well worth the visit. We were able to identify all the major landmarks we plan to see this weekend. On the way back down there were over a hundred people in the queue to head up on the elevator. We were happily perplexed as to our apparently fortuitous timing just a few minutes earlier.

Down from the Tower we restocked with summer's essentials of water and glace. (Gelato by another name tastes just as sweet!) A quick metro trip brought us up from the ground next to the enormous un-laned roundabout that encircles the Arc de Triumph. Six or more "lanes" of traffic (I use the word loosely) swirl around in a dervish of confidence and Joie de Vivre. A young enthusiastic traveller told us the Arc de Triumph was worth climbing because not only was it the historic entrance to Paris, but also because an accident happens there every 12 minutes! Well, we didn't fancy dodging the traffic but we eventually located the subway access. We stumbled upon a ceremony occurring there as we emerged, later identified as the once-daily relighting of the flame of... something. Crisp uniforms, precise drumming, an older female civilian with a wreath and a sword - you know the sort of thing. Took some photos once the crowds began to thin. We walked down the Avenue des Champ-Elysées and had a picnic dinner in a small park. Walking back across the Seine we were treated to a remarkable display of sparking lights all over the Eiffel Tower. This short hourly spectacle each evening apparently commemorates September 11th. More photos of the tower, beautifully lit from within the structure, revealed the intricate design. We caught the metro home to crash into our super-climatic room.

Thursday, 7 August

I'm waiting for Bronwyn to come to bed, and in now six and half hours, at 4:15am, I'll be getting up again. That's because as previously discussed, we're heading off to Paris for the weekend. I'm just about finished reading a book that was given to me by our good friends Michael and Jenny. It is called Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, by Ronald Sider. He re-wrote this book in 1997 on the 20th anniversary of his original book of the same name. As I've been sitting on the bus to and from work reading this book, the irony of a weekend trip abroad hasn't escaped me. With how accessible Paris is from London these days the trip will not in fact be particularly costly. Nor do I feel guilty about making this trip. However, this book has caused me to again review our lifestyle, in the context of the over one billion desperately poor people in the world. There is no question that to be a follower of Jesus means to care for the poor as he did. This book has helped me to think further about some of the global and specific ways in which we could contribute to this. I have found it a challenging read. Big ideas, small steps.

Wednesday, 6 August

Ouch! My housemate Nick had an accident recently, and with swelling reducing but the pain increasing he visited my colleagues at the Accident and Emergency department today, over at our Tooting Campus. (That's a place, not a fanfare...) You can read all about it at his blog... Needless to say he made the right decision to seek a medical opinion.

Blackmail is a nasty experience. Wherever possible, the best way to manage it appears to be to come clean regarding the information they hold on you. Otherwise you're under their power for ever. In that vein, I'm publishing this photo before my blackmailer does. To mis-quote scripture, I sir was a hairy man. In fact, while clearing my conscience about my appearance in Melbourne in March, I can further report that I've headed back in that (general) direction again. It was not that long ago that I reported I'd shaved off my goatee. However, during our recent time in Tuscany I've re-grown it. This followed the admission by Bronwyn that she wasn't sure whether she preferred me with or without... I'm taking the opportunity to try "with" again.

Today was the hottest day ever on record for London: 35 degrees Celsius. We were only 2.2 degrees shy of the United Kingdom record, which at one stage they believed might have been breached today. Not content with this, we've heard this evening that it may be 41 degrees in Paris this weekend. Fortunately, they are predicting a whirling four miles per hour breeze, which should cool us down to at most 39 degrees. A vast improvement.

Tuesday, 5 August

That my return to work yesterday was somewhat traumatic is probably indicated by the fact that I went to bed last night at 9pm and basically slept through till my alarm ten hours later at 7am. This is unheard of for me. In any case, I have survived day two. This afternoon I caught a glimmer of one aspect of my work I quite enjoy which was a helpful reminder. This is a four-day week for me as we head to Paris Friday morning. This means I'm half-way now and I can see the light at the end...

I picked up today my three rolls of film that I'd taken in Tuscany. I'm pleased with the results! Carolyn's photos are also back and are excellent. We've found that the local Boots chemist provides good processing at a reasonable price. You can get white borders there (for 50p extra) and they use a Fuji process and print on Fuji Crystal Archive paper which is my preference. Strangely they do not do matte prints in house. If you want matte prints they send them away, to Kodak for some unfathomable reason despite all that local Fuji-goodness. Further, though Kodak will do the matte prints they apparently will not do white borders. So Fuji it was for me, with their deep blues, bright greens, and crisp whites! A reasonable price for scanning to CD has ensured the photos will be coming in the not too-distant future to a web site near you.

It was apparently 32 degrees here today, making us wonder whether we've actually returned from Tuscany... Forecasts for tomorrow have variously reported 34 to 37 degrees. We're not looking forward to that. Our timing hasn't been all bad however as we've heard that while we were away the weather here was wet, cold and somewhat miserable. Further, while we found Tuscany hot it has apparently got even hotter there since we left! We'll still enjoy it when London cools off. Carolyn travelled to Salisbury today by rail to visit a friend, and was a victim of delays as they have imposed speed restrictions on the intercity trains in case the tracks have buckled. It should be considered however that this is the same train company who reported service outages due to the "wrong sort of leaves" blowing on to the tracks. Hmmm. With record temperatures all across Europe I'm expecting Paris will be scorching this weekend. In the meantime, without air conditioning at my work productivity is probably dropping, though I'm too droopy to notice.

Saturday, 2 August

Over the last few weeks we've been exploring some of the origins of Western civilisation. Having grown up in the colonies, being able to visit the icons of our cultural heritage continues to surprise me. On Wednesday we returned from our ten days in Tuscany, where we caught a glimpse of the history of that highly influential country. Our photos are in for processing and over the next couple of weeks I hope to put up a journal of our travels in Italy. Back here in London we've also been visiting some of the historical spots, spurred on by having Bronwyn's sister Carolyn visiting with us here.

In that vein, we spent the day today at the Tower of London. This 900-year-old fortress of the Thames is probably most famous for the various famous and royal prisoners it has held, usually till their executions. Prior to being a prison, however, it was the residential palace of a series of monarchs. Today it is primarily a tourist attraction. In addition to touring the fortress itself, with a guided tour provided by the Yeoman Warders (the "Beefeaters"), the Tower of London also houses the Crown Jewels in a suitably substantial vault. The Tower is one of three world heritage sites in London, and was worth the visit. The Crown Jewels were a particular highlight. I was not necessarily expecting to be particularly impressed by these but they turned out to be remarkable. I'm glad we didn't plan to do anything else today as we were well tired by the end of it.

I return to work on Monday, and I guess I'm as ready for that as I'll ever be. Bronwyn continues to be on her summer holidays and will be doing further holiday things with Carolyn. We're also gearing up for our next trip abroad. I'm having a short week, finishing on Thursday. On Friday we're then heading to Paris on the Eurostar. This train service runs through the Channel Tunnel and recently set a UK land speed record reaching 334.7 km/hr (208.0 mi/hr). I don't think you're allowed to stick your head out the window while it's running somehow. It will take us just three hours to reach central Paris from London Waterloo station. Incredible. While technically this will be our third time in France (we travelled through it on the coach going both to and from Italy) this is our first time we'll have been there deliberately. We're planning to hit all the key highlights over the weekend, starting with the Eiffel Tower on Friday and ending with the Louvre on Sunday. We'll be meeting Bronwyn's other sister Stephanie at the Louvre on the Sunday morning, after she flies in from New Zealand. Stephanie will then be staying with us in London for ten days, overlapping with the last three days of Carolyn's stay. It's a full house for us this month.