Thu 31 Aug 2006
Hiya! That’s how people greet you here in the UK. We arrived in london on sunday at 6:15am. But it took until 1pm until we got to cambridge so we were traveling for 34 hours straight. But let me start at the beginning…
Flying high
We got to sydney airport nice and early at 1pm but couldn’t checkin until 2pm. So we settled in near the business class checkin where Dad enquired whether we had been upgraded. Not yet…and even if we weren’t going to be the lady said we could checkin there to avoid the economy queues. Our luggage weighed in at 22kg, 18kg, 10kg (for me) and 16kg for the pram/cot. That’s alot of stuff! But it did include 3 weeks worth of nappies, wipes etc. We got to board the plane first, sat at the bulkhead with a bassinet and were next to another family with a 7month old girl named Lulu. We got a number of eyerolls from other passengers all thinking the worst about flying with babies. I didn’t like my bassinet at first and so i cried a bit. Poor mum got very stressed as she stared down the barrel of another 22 hours of flying. She felt sick and couldn’t eat anything (which brought back bad memories of our previous international trip). A nice lady near us nursed me to sleep so mum could get a little nap. She felt great after this, fed me and then i went to sleep for a few hours. I was an angel after this. We transited (is this a real word?) in singapore where everyone waved and blew kisses at me. We were first on again and i slept for 6 hours and got into my normal routine. Dad slept well but mum had a 4 yr old girl kicking her seat. Oh well… When we arrived at heathrow one of the passengers said that i was extremely well behaved and that my parents should be proud of me (they were!) We received VIP treatment through customs and the bags came out quickly due to our ‘special assistance’ tags but the pram took longer. Everyone has been super nice to us. Heathrow express (with push chair areas), underground to liverpool st, and then stansted express where all quite different train experiences. after some toing and froing mum & dad signed their lives away along with a £500 excess for a hire car (a black hyundai sonata) and then we sat in traffic on the M11 for 1.5 hours. I was not happy jan! But we made it to our farmhouse just outside of cambridge. Dad went to the markets and we all attended church at eden baptist. I think at one part of the service all 3 of us had our eyes closed. It was a long journey.
Meeting Auntie Kat
On monday morning i met my Auntie Kat. She is a whirlwind! She was very excited to meet me and gave me lots of cuddles and kisses. And took a million photos. However she doesn’t like me crying and doesn’t want to change any nappies.
Sightseeing
During our week in Cambridge we have done the following so far:
- Attended the Fenland country fair where we saw greyhounds, ferrets, horses, eagles, guns and cakes
- Geocached at a few park and ride stops (these massive carparks reduce the amount of cars in the city itself)
- Shopped at Tescos (where we got pork crackling in chip packets) There is a wide variety of food there from the fabulous (clotted cream icecream) to the gross(6 sausages in brine in a tin!)
- Dad did quite a bit of work while the rest of us walked around town
- Went on a couple of walking tours where we saw King’s College including the amazing chapel (mum and dad said this was one of the most beautiful churches they have seen), St.John’s college (with the bridge of sighs) and rambled around the backs
- Punted along the Cam river and got caught in a summer downpour
- Got lost in a maize maze
- Explored Ely cathedral and saw Oliver Cromwell’s house
- Visited Auntie Katrina’s work
- Dined at Carrie’s on a lamb roast and explored the secret garden
- Dined with Mila in her lovely renovated house
- Wandered around Wimpole Hall
Observations
- Everyone rides bikes but no one wears helmets
- Not many places take credit card
- We have 3 bathrooms at the farmhouse
- We are eating lots of summer fruit including blueberries from poland,raspberries from scotland, and blackberries and strawberries from england (so so sweet)
- It is summer here but the weather is extremely changeable – hot and sunny for an hour then windy, cold and rainy the next and then back again
New things
- I’m sitting forwards in the car. I like looking out the windscreen as well as looking at mum and dad
- I rolled over for the first time (from front to back)
- I have my first pair of sunnies
As you can tell we are having a great time and we are looking forward to celebrating Auntie Katrina’s 30th birthday on Saturday. Flying to Amsterdam on Sunday.
Thu 24 Aug 2006
Here’s Lucy helping with the packing. It’s been a very busy week but we’re about ready to go. First stop Cambridge, then Amsterdam followed by Berlin. There’s so much to get ready. I think we’re just going to pack all of Lucy’s clothes and hope for the best!
Here are some tips for travelling (we’ll let you know if they were helpful):
- During the week Lucy has been sleeping in her travel cot so that she gets used to being in a different environment. The result – sleep! She seems fine with it but it’s not so good for my back.
We have packed mittens for Lucy’s hands so that when she gets changed in the plane toilets she doesn’t touch everything and then stick her hands in her mouth. (Thanks Danie for the mittens!)
Lucy has a paper ticket rather than an e-ticket due to lots of people trying to take babies on board without paying
We’ve decided to take lots of nappies with us. Not that there aren’t nappies in Europe but what it does do is create some space in our bags for things that we buy.
We are taking spare clothes for all three of us as carry on luggage.
During the week we also managed to squeeze in two pizza parties and cook lamb roast for 9 people (using the pizza oven). Here is a photo of girls and babies from our ante natal class. This is the first time we have all gotten together since giving birth and it was great to meet all the babies.
Lucy is continuing to grow. 00 Bonds wondersuits are getting tight lengthwise and someone commented the other day that Lucy’s cheeks were getting very chubby. She is a very happy baby as evidenced by the photos below.
Ciao until next week! Lucy will act as foreign correspondent and will post a blog entry next week from the UK.
Thu 17 Aug 2006
It’s been a week of high excitement. We’re off to Europe to visit Katrina.
It’s all action as we make preparations. So much to do and so little time! We’ve been to a travel agent, passport interviews and doctors.
Each morning I have been greeting Lucy with ‘good morning! good morning!’ and excitingly yesterday it was ‘guten morgan! guten morgan!
Lucy is very well. She slept for 12 hours on Wednesday but that was a one off and on the same night Sophie woke us up with her barking at 5:30am (so I still didn’t get a full nights sleep!!)
We had a couple of perfect days during the week where Lucy was very well behaved – feeding, playing and sleeping well. She was very good for her babysitters when we went out to dinner at Summer Salt on Friday and she was well behaved at Adriaan’s birthday party.
Evening seems to bring a bit of crying and I think we are going through a change of routine. Anyway, got to go. Let me finish with this – Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it. [Bueller, Ferris Bueller]
Faces of Lucy:
In mum and dad’s bedroom:
Happy girl:
Wed 09 Aug 2006
Not much to report this week and not too many photos. What can I say? It has been raining a lot and we haven’t got out much apart from the usual.
Lucy continues to grow, likes laughing and is going through some fussiness with sleeping. She has a new routine which is making evenings easier (feeding at 5:30pm and then 10pm). She also discovered bath toys this week.
Apart from her hair, Lucy is now looking exactly like me when I was a baby. I had lots of dark hair but Lucy lost the dark hair she was born with and the new hair is a lot fairer. It’s fairly spiky at the moment until is grows a bit longer. The facial expressions are very similar!
Time for an update with some special questions for mum and dad:
Best part of being a mum – Seeing Lucy smile at me when she hears my voice
Worst part of being a mum – Apart from the lack of sleep, it’s the heavy lifting (pram, baby, washing etc)
Funniest moment – Lucy doing a poo in the bath while Andrew was bathing her
Grossest moment – Lucy doing a poo that exploded out of the top of her nappy and all over me
Most unexpected thing about being a parent – Everything! I had no understanding of what it was like beforehand
Coolest present – The ‘daddy cool’ and ‘yummy mummy’ mugs
Best family moments – Going walking around Sutho
(Dad hasn’t answered his questions so maybe there will be an update from him next week)
Wed 02 Aug 2006
Lucy is 3 months old tomorrow! She is a healthy, happy baby who likes to smile, sleep and feed. What an angel! We couldn’t ask for a more perfect baby. Here is a photo of Lucy all rugged up for a ramble around Sutherland. A rare occassion where Sophie got more attention from the locals than Lucy.
Lucy had her first Christmas! (Christmas in July that is) Whilst she wasn’t particularly well behaved by not eating or sleeping, we still had a good time. I think she must have been just too excited by the thought of celebrating Christmas! Lots of roast meat, vegies and pudding…mmm
We also ventured into the city to visit friends at CBA and have lunch with Anna and Nancy. This was the first time Lucy had been to the city ex utero! She was a very good girl, smiling and giggling at lots of new people. Here is a photo of Lucy with Nancy at the Glasshouse Restaurant. Whilst we had some crying when we got home due to over tiredness (Lucy not me) the day was a great success!
This week:
- Babysat by Nanna and Grandpa
Exercised at our fitness class for mums and bubs in Jannali
Andrew went on a SWAG camp to Bents Basin
Walked around Sutherland
Style princess:
