London: 23rd – 25th April 10

We arrived in London on Friday morning – it’s weird to be back and knowing that we’re leaving again so soon! Matt had some meetings arranged with his old colleagues around lunch time so I went with him to Canary Wharf and had a stroll around checking our old stomping grounds.


We then returned to our hotel in Covent Garden, just by Seven Dials to prepare for our party in the evening – as we’re only in London for a couple of days we thought it best to get all of our friends together in the same place so we reserved half of a basement at a bar in Fitzrovia.

The venue was cool – lots of space and a good atmosphere and we had about 35 people turn up. It was great to see everyone, although as always with these things you don’t get to speak to everyone as much as you’d like to.


We had all of our old friends there, as well as lots of Matt’s HSBC colleagues and my old Rapier colleagues and Clients.


Tania, whom we travelled with around Bolivia also made the trip over from France to attend! Everyone had a great time and we all managed to get very drunk – which, lets face it, was the intention!


On Saturday Matt and I were feeling worse for wear. Luckily our friend Penny had bought us Glee on DVD as a leaving present, so we watched 10 (yes, 10!) episodes – it’s a great hangover cure!

Unfortunately some of our peace and quiet was disturbed by Palestine and Israel kicking off outside our window – a demo of a whole 12 people - that’s central London for you! We did manage to leave the hotel for dinner – just about.




The next day was marathon day so we met up with Obe for lunch and then headed down to the Mall to meet Rosie and Chris. Our friend Jonny was running the marathon so we cheered him on (at least the others did – I’d gone for a pee break and missed him – typical!). That was followed by afternoon tea at the National Gallery – very cakey!

It was great to spend our last day in London on Marathon day – all of the flags were out and the streets were buzzing – despite a bit of rain it was largely bright and sunny – infact we’ve been very lucky as for the 3 weeks we’ve been in England we’ve had sunshine and blue skies every day!

In the afternoon we took a taxi to Heathrow to start our new life in Hong Kong! We have a week to settle in before Matt starts work – watch this space!

Melton Mobray: 20th – 23rd April 10

We’ve spent the last few days staying with Matt’s Mum in Melton Mowbray. We’ve had lots of roast dinners – I think she’s fattening us up for HK! We’ve also visited the famous Melton Mowbray cattle market and had a couple of nice walks in the countryside around their house!

Oakham: 15th – 20th April

We’ve spent the last few days in Oakham staying with Matt’s Dad. It was Matt’s birthday on Friday so we took a trip to Leicester to visit Pauline, a family friend, and had lunch in a converted farm house. Fish and chips again – yum! In the evening we went out with Matt’s Dad to the local Indian restaurant – very tasty!





On Saturday we met Uncle Pete and his new wife Annabelle for lunch and then spent the afternoon with Matt’s brother Chris. We spent hours playing ‘Rock Star’ on the playstation – it’s so much fun!

On Sunday we chilled out for the day and had a visit from Matt’s grandad.



Monday we had our stuff picked up to be shipped to Hong Kong – we’re leaving next Sunday, just 6 days away, it’s really exciting! Our stuff will take 6 weeks to get there so we’ll have to continue living with just the amount of stuff we can carry for the next few weeks – at least we’re used to it having had to do so for the past 9 months! On Monday evening we met Matt’s cousin Sarah for a meal.

Norwich, UK: 12th – 15th April 2010

On Tuesday Mum drove us from the Wirral to Norwich to see Matt’s brother Mike, his wife Jess, and their 4 kids, Annabelle (4), Brandon (2) and the new twins, 10 day old Naomi and Jacob.

Mimi and Nicky came to see us off, with Mimi in a full-on Indian Sari and funky shades!

On the way we stopped for lunch in Melton Mowbray at Matt’s Mums and then popped in for 5 minutes to see Matt’s Dad at work in Oakham.



Matt, Mum and I are staying at the Maids head hotel, which is the oldest in Norwich with parts of the building dating back to the 14th century – it’s adjacent to the cathedral. Mum has been stuffy in getting upgraded to a massive suite!


On Tuesday evening we popped in to see Mike and Jess and the kids. Annabelle was shy to start with but soon became more lively when she remembered us – and Brandon had just had his tea, so was asleep, sitting up in his high-chair!



The twins are adorable – tiny but beautiful! It was really nice for my Mum to meet them as she’d brought with her a whole load of clothes that the kids on our side of the family don’t need anymore.





On Wednesday we said goodbye to Mum and took the kids to the park – they loved it on the swings and slides, although I think Matt and Mike enjoyed the slide more - they went on it over 20 times each I reckon!

On Thursday we spent the morning with the kids again and then headed to Oakham to spend a few days with Matt’s Dad.