Ben and Hannas Trip 2007

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Dear Asher & Bri!

To our dear Asher & Bri,
Yes Ash we are still on holidays. Its a weird holiday because we are working so much and we are so far away from all the people we love.
Bri, we hope you are loving Gymbaroo still and we love it that you talk about us everytime you drive past Bens old work. We have many photos of the both of you on our computer and they are my screen saver so i get to see the both of you alot. I bet you have grown heaps in the last 3 months.
Asher i hope you are looking after Mum and Dad & especially baby Charlie girl. Could you give them a big squeeze and kiss from Ben and myself.
Bri i hope you are getting ready for a baby brother or sister to look after. Could you please give Mum, Dad & Michael a big squeeeeeeze and kiss from Ben & Myself too!
We love you both and miss you very much...
All our Love Ben & Hanna

Friday, May 25, 2007

Powderham Castle!

So on Thursday we went to Powderham Castle in Kenton on our 1/2 day off. A reall Castle... it was very cool.
This is the rose garden. In front of the rose garden (so behind me taking the photo) is a deer park with loads of Deer wandering around.
We went in for a tour. It was cool to see all the secrete doors and stuff like that. Ben loved it. It was also cool to know that the Castle is still lived in by "the family" Dont ask me who the family is but yes they are related to the many Devon royalty that lived there many moons ago.
Our tour guide was old and did ramble on a little but i suppose he did know what he was talking about so that was a good thing.
Ben now wants secrete doors in our house.

After the castle tour we walked to the secrete garden... Thinking all nice roses and flowers again. Somewhere nice to sit in the sun...

Nope it was full of animals! There was a black pot belly pig wandering around with a sheep and some chooks. There were lots of other animals in cages that you could pat and all that. And i got to see my very first Chipmonk. I did try taking a photo of it but the camera kept focusing on the chicken wire not the chipmonk.

So that was our trip to Powderham Castle. Was very nice and we had a great day!

Sorry i took so long to do something fun to put on the blog.

Han

North Devon!

Well on our day off on Wednesday we decided to explore a little of North Devon.
We made it to Croyde. Suggested to us by the chef Mark.
We got to see a surf beach in England.
Nothing like good old Ocean Grove. It was very nice but the waves were no where near the size we get at the surf beaches at home.
We had lunch at a little cafe/t-house on top of a cliff and this was basically our view from our table. It was 23 degrees and really nice to be sitting at the beach!

On our way back we stopped at Tiverton to see the Tiverton Castle. It was very disappointing so we went next door and took a photo of the more impressive church.

All up it was a good day. We came home and had some dinner then watched Spiderman 2.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Update!

Well hi guys,
Sorry we havnt posted anything in a while. We are both doing fine. We have just not been doing anything fun other than working.
Work has been interesting to say the least. We got a new manager a couple of weeks ago and he came in all "gunz a blazen" and in response to that one girl quit and another started looking for another job. Just last Friday, he was let go and our workplace has been restored to order and we are all having fun again. The girl who quit has also come back to see if she can pick up some shifts again. We are getting lots of sleep and Ben has finally let me buy the Darling Buds of May on DVD!!! (I picked it up today). We had the day off today and went for a drive up North and i have taken some photos. I will do a better post tomorrow after our half day off with lots of photos. We are about to go and watch Spiderman 2... Where has spiderman been all my life???
Cheers Hanna.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Welcome Mina!

Hi Min great to see your comment.
Yes guys you know me i am counting down the days til we come home. 180 sleeps as of Kittys Birthday (14/05/07). Im not counting down cos im desperate to come home. I just like counting down to things and most of you would be glad that im not counting down to Christmas yet. (Although i do look at our work calander and look at the little snow man on Christmas day and say "Ahhh Christmas, I cant wait").
Nothing else to add... We are just working. Although i feel as though i have broken my little toe but i can still move it so it must be ok!
Han

Friday, May 11, 2007

Stone Henge!

So this Tuesday just gone we had a day off and went to Stone Henge. it took us 2 hours to get there for 15 mins of walking around looking at some rocks. Na it was really good.
As you can probably tell it was very very windy and quite a miserable day. But i think thats all part of visiting Stone Henge. You go on a miserable day and get lots and lots of wind.

So this is it! Youcan get any closer. See in the left hand bottom corner of the photo, it all roped off.
Ben infornt of Stone Henge.
Hanna infront of Stone Henge.
And this is what its meant to look like.

So after that we drove 2 hours back to Exeter and went to the movies. Not as much of a selection as village.

We went and saw Spiderman 3. We loved it, thought it was really good. Now all we have to do is see Spiderman 1 & 2 and we will fully understand the story. Hehehe

We went to Exmoth for dinner at the Mexican Restaurant which was quite expensive for mexican but it was really nice.

Now we are just working and not sure what we will be up to on our next day off. So thats it from us til we do something fun.

We love and miss you all!!!!


Time in London with Corey & Sarah!

So on Tuesday last week we got to meet up with Corey and Sarah before they flew home and i have to say it has been one of the best couple of days. It was like we had not had a an 18 month break from eachother! Just like old times! I know that all of you will be thinking the same thing as you get to catch up with these two amazing people.

Yes we played in Hamleys all afternoon again. Corey loved it saying "If we lose eachother, we meet at the front door" Like a kid in a candy shop eyes wide open!

Corey has a bee held up to his ear and it buzzes... very cool.

Sarah was just recalling what it would be like with long hair again!

Now you will be seeing some of us in different places around London. Just or fun!

We went to the Walk about for dinner where Simon and Katie joined us. Simon had to leave to go to work but Katie stayed and played.

Hey hey, We are all inside a London phone box and there was still lots of room!
Katie took a photo of the 4 of us in the phone box too.

Going Down! Just before we said good night to eachother heading down to catch the tube.
On Wednesday we met up with Corey and Sarah again for lunch and they took us to Soba for Noodles. This is where Corey, Sarah, Justin and Simone use to come after Hillsong on a Sunday for a meal. We loved it.
So it was sad but we had to say goodbye to Corey and Sarah so all of you at home could see them. It was a good couple of days and cant wait to see them again when we get home.
And well well well. James and Jacqui are having another baby. I am so excited. I thought my comment may bring a few people out of the wood works! Congratulations guys and at least i will be home for this one!
Love you guys!
Han

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Classic French Touch Parking!!!




Need we say any more about the French and their driving???

Paris!

Welcome to Paris everyone! Check out the big thing behind me. I never thought i would ever see it in real life. It was amazing.
Check out how big the leg to this thing is! Huge. And we climbed it.
Here we are waiting to climb the Eiffle Tower. It didnt open until 9:30am so we had to wait about half an hour.
Here is the straight up view from under it. Cool huh!!!
Waiting Waiting...
Once the gates opened, we didnt have to line up for tickets as we bought the tickets where we had to climb the stairs. All the lazy tourists take the lift to the top. We are young and fit enough so we went straight through.
Here we go...
As Ben takes his first step on his way up to the top of the Eiffle tower, i had to take a photo.
Heres me laging behind... no not really, Ben ran ahead to get a pic of me climbing the Eiffle Tower steps!
These were the last 8 steps!
668 steps to the second level of the tower. You then take the lift to the 3rd level. If we were to walk the steps to the top (not that you are aloud) it would have added 1,000 more steps!

We did it with ease!

Here we are. After 668 steps and a ride in the lift, we are at the top! Look a little hot dont we...
Here are some views from the top of the Eiffel Tower.


This photo shows how far away from Sydney and Canberra we were.
Once we came back down, we had to wait about half an hour before our bike tour started so we sat on a bench under the tower.
There are all these gipsey women who come up to you and ask you if you speak English. Our tour guide Meg told us to say no.
So it happened to us regularly. When ever we saw them coming we would stop talking and when they asked us if we spoke English we shook our heads or said no.
There were a couple of times where we got caught out but still said no... the gipsey woman would say "you do speak English" and look cross. Was very funny!
One of them tried to take Ben and my water while Ben was waiting for me and grabbed the bag saying she needed the water. Poor Ben. Stood his ground too. It was good water!

So after our climb up the Eiffle Tower, this was the group of us who went on a Fat Tyre Bike Tour around Paris. It was amazing. Was like learning how to rideagain with having to hold the handles in the wrong spot like you would if you were rideing a Harley. Ben Dwayne and I all made sure we could still ride with no hands!
I had to have a red bike.
This is the park we had lunch in.
Here we are having lunch where we paid 4 quid for a drink of lemonade. Thats about $9 for a pint of lemonade. Sylvia (Team Colombia) and i almost fell out of our trees.
Ben and Hanna standing out the front of one of the most romantic places in the world. And no he didnt pop the question like i know all of you though he would!
Infact we didnt really spend the whole Eiffle tower time together.

This is where we had or pic nic. Not quite under the tower but the view was awesome!

Thanks to Nicole for this photo above.
see me with all my friends!

After the pic nic next to the eiffle tower, we went on a river cruise where we saw the statue of liberty.
Weird i know. But aparently the french gave America the statue of liberty.
This one is a fair bit smaller than the real thing.
Stay tuned for our trip to America to see the real on in October. We have extended our trip to America... How exciting!
This is the Notradarm (spell it like it sounds when you dont know any other way)
This was the view while we were on the ferry.


Here is the Eiffel Tower sparkeling.
It twinkles for 10 mins on the hour every hour and looks amazing.
I took so many photos of the tower just to get the perfect one. It was hard as you all know to get something thats lit up on digital camera, but i did it and i got heaps of good ones. Well i think so anyway!


So this was the last night of our Europ trip. We had so much fun and made heaps of friends. We couldnt have asked for a better group and tried to convince them all to do a Greek Islands trip with us in September. They all complained about the cost of the flights to come back. I said i didnt mind!!!!