The Final London Weekend

September 28th 2007 - the last day of workMurray and I went out to toast being unemployed with a bottle of champagne we had been saving for AGES!

We went to our FAVOURITE place in Putney - Il Mascalzone. We had the meal we ALWAYS have cause it is so so so good! Carbonara pasta and Fantasia Pizza (with pepperoni, mushrooms & artichokes - with the home made chili sauce to top it off - yummmm!).

Murray & I with that 'we don't have jobs' glow :)

September 29th 2007 - The Night out with Friends & Family to say Goodbye

Me & Niece Lorraine - gosh I'll miss her! She's fun and sweet and such a good friend!

Me with my first good girlfriend in London - Heather!

Me & Sue - we used to work together - but stayed in touch & had lots of fun shopping days out in central London!

My favourite girls - Lorraine & Heather

Me with our flat mate & friend Kirsty

Muray with some of his work buddies - from left Dave, Paul & Tom

Murray's work friend Aneta on the left & her sister

Lisa & Richard

Murray went a bit overboard on the photos..... I THINK some people got annoyed..... (lol)

Our good American friends Brad & Jeanne

Murray surprising the guys with his scary chipmunk face

Lorraine, Heather & Me - on the dance floor!

Shake it shake it shake it!

The bad thing about this photo is you can't see my gorgeous leopard print shoes :(

Shots for the boys

Sue & Me

Lorraine - I hate her & her gorgeous spotless skin :)

Jason uses his Carolina charm, her face shows the level of success

Me & Jeanne

Murray, Heather & Jason - SOMEONE must have said something funny?

Sad faces - I will miss Lorraine & She WILL miss me ( I demand it) just kidding :)

Niece & Uncle - also friends

Heather & Jason performed their classic dance floor routine for us!

They even demonstrated their highly skilled precision dancing.... do not attempt this at home! Only for professionals!

SUCH a fantastic night! It was great to see our friends & family and go out in style! We had a brilliant time:)

Sunday September 30th - Saying Goodbye to Abby & Eva

We gave Abby a little fairy princess outfit - she liked the crown :)

Working on the bubbles! She spilled almost all of the bubble liquid - but still had a great time

Oh look I found Mama's sunglasses in her bag!

Me, Abby & Eva - working on sock monkeys at the pub!

Abby loved the stuffing - until she got excited and put her whole face in the pile - with her mouth open - and got it stuck all over her tongue!

Oh gosh, it was so hard to say goodbye to Abby & Eva. Eva is such a good friend, and we love Abby to bits! But I know we'll see them again - for sure - and hopefully not to far from now!

It's my LAST Monday at work!

I was woken up this morning by howling wind banging on our windows at 5:30am. I put a pillow on top of my head, but that didn't really help, so of course now I'm exhausted. It's raining cats & dogs today - totally miserable - but a good day to be inside and working.

My horoscope today said:
Are you actually sure what you're doing? You're running around like a headless poultry item, but are you directing your efforts in the right place? Hadn't you better check before you exhaust yourself?

Eeeeeeeek that freaked me out - it IS sort of what I was thinking today though on the way in. I think I'm going to focus on my big final project today and worry about the little details later. I think if I work hard today & tomorrow I can at least finish this part! only 5 days to go - wow time flies!!

We watched the final 2 episodes of the Sopranos last night. OH MY GOSH - now I can see why people in America were upset at the ending. Um ya - I didn't like it either. It was a great show - I'm gonna miss it:)

Saturday we caught up with Murray's half brother Graham, his wife Kerry and their children Justin & Lorraine. We went to a pub to watch England play rugby in the World Cup and then went out to a Spanish tapas dinner nearby.

from left: Kerry, Graham, Justin, Murray, Me & Lorraine

Kerry, Graham & Justin with the paella

It was a nice afternoon - lovely to see them and nice to be able to say goodbye to them in person before we leave the UK :)

Sunday Heather & Jason picked us up in their rental car !

Jason did very well considering it was only the second time he had driven in the UK!

We went to Canterbury!
The Canterbury Cathedral was GORGEOUS! And HUGE!
Stunning stained glass
Gorgeous

It really was like 2 Cathedral's in one - massive!
And a lovely outdoor courtyard


We also stopped by Canterbury Castle - it reminded me of a pile of rocks around a sandbox. That's what it was really - oh well, worth a 5 minute visit.
Then some ice cream - yummmm (shame Murray's flake smelled like old socks - ewww)

(p.s. for my American readers - a flake is the chocolate stick coming out of the vanilla cone - they are usually nice - and don't normally smell like feet)

On the way back to the car we heard & saw this group of old ladies posing for pictures with a big burly biker - CUTE!
The gate leaving Cantebury Then we quickly drove over to Dover to check out the view of France - This pic is Jason, Heather & I checking out the view (yes we really COULD see France- pretty cool!)
The White Cliffs of Dover
Murray (with his lego hair) & I & the white Cliffs

Just in case you missed it - Beware of the Cliff Edge