30-Jul-2009: Christine and Danny's Farewell

It was time to farewell Christine and Danny back to Australia. Drinks after work were organised at Jewel bar in Piccadilly, and the many friends that Christine and Danny made during their stint in London came along to say farewell and good luck. It was so sad to see them leave as they have been such a big part in our experience of living in London. We've really missed not having them around!

19-Jul-2009: Shen's 30th in Spain

We celebrated my 30th birthday at the Costa Brava coast in Spain, just north of Barcelona. We stayed in the seaside town of Tossa del Mar and hired two vans for the weekend to get our group of 14 around.

On the first day, we drove to the Emporda wine region and did a tasting and tour at a winery called Cellar Can Cais. At the end of the tasting, we were told that the 3 euro cost per person for the tour and tasting would be waivered if that person bought a bottle of wine. And since the cost of the bottles of wine started at 3 euros, it made a lot of sense to just buy 14 bottles of wine!



After wine tasting, we stopped at a local supermarket and stocked up on deli goods and headed towards the beach for a picnic lunch. It was a lovely afternoon of chilling out at the beach and enjoying the sun.






In the evening, we headed out to a restaurant by seaside in Tossa del Mar where we feasted on seafood platters. Afterwards, we walked up to top the headland to a castle where there was a cocktail bar where we sat for a while and enjoyed the view. We passed a couple of pubs on the way and wondered which one was the one owned by the family of Kylie Minogue's beau.










The next day, we took a trip along the coast on a glass bottom boat and spent a couple of hours at one of the coves on the way before heading back to Girona airport for our flight back to London.

We had problems finding a petrol station where we could fill up our hire vans before dropping them back at the airport. After reaching the airport, we discovered the closest petrol station was more then 10 kilometres away at an earlier turn off on the highway. It was a massive stress when we lost Chris and Madzia in the second van who were meant to be following us, and they ended up almost to Barcelona before they could do a U-turn. They would have definitely missed the flight had it not been delayed.... a very close call!!