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A Busy December
Well it's been a busy few weeks. We've attended a wedding, Andrew's
gotten a new job, we've skied in the Italian Alps and gotten sucked into
the vortex that is Christmas. Thank goodness we've got the next few days
off!
On the 4th of December two of our housemates, Jarques and Maria, tied the
knot. The ceremony was at the local Town Hall and the reception was
at a Turkish restaurant just down the road. It was really nice
to be asked to the wedding having only known them for a
couple of weeks. Also, it was very cool to attend a registry office wedding
after reading about them in various books over the years. Checking out
all the other brides and grooms (there were some interesting outfits!)
also helped pass the long waiting time; the Hall let another couple in
before Jarques and Maria so their ceremony was 45 minutes late, through
no fault of the bride! The happy couple were very, well, happy, and
lunch was fantastic. As always
everyone ate too much dip and bread and then had trouble fitting in
their mains. There was also a testosterone
charged 'How much Turkish coffee can you drink?' competition.
Check out the pictures of the ceremony
and dinner.
On the 12th of December, way before the crack of dawn, we left for our skiing holiday in
Cervinia, Italy. Cervinia is gorgeous (check out our photos) and we had
a fantastic time. We met up with Sarah McClusky and hit the slopes in
sunny weather and with about 2m of snow on the ground. The village,
Cervinia, was at 2050m and the top slopes were at 3480m so there were
just one or two runs for us to enjoy, well 350kms of runs actually.
We
all bought international lift passes and skied in Switzerland as well:
the Swiss resort of Zermatt backs onto Cervinia (with the Matterhorn
towering over both slopes). Whilst we did have to carry our passports
with us every day, we never got asked to show them and sadly never got
them stamped by the border guards. Andrew was very keen to get an "arrived by skis"
stamp in his passport but alas it was not to be. On the one day that it was too
windy to ski we went outdoor ice-skating, swishing around as snow
fluttered down through the -7 degree air. The Italian food was fantastic
and our hotel shabby but friendly, although the 3 course meals we ate
every night don't seem to have been fully burnt off by the skiing. Oh
well, we just might have to go back.....
Since we've been back, Andrew got a new job. He's working for a
mobile phone game developer called Sorrent; the US parent company has expanded into the
UK market and they're keen to grow their team. It hasn't been an easy
transition, lots of contract problems, but the work will be interesting
and the contract should be signed in early 2005 so we have our fingers
crossed that everything will work out. Andrew's enjoying being at the
office, even if he's the only one there most days!
And of course Christmas is almost upon us. We've seen the Regent and
Oxford St Christmas lights, braved the rabid crowds to purchase
Christmas gifts and squished ourselves onto various tubes full of
Christmas shoppers and their many bags. On Monday night we had the
'Buxton Manor' Christmas Dinner, which was a lovely blend of Australian,
Swedish and South African traditions. We fired up the PC and managed to
download some Christmas carols for that extra Christmassy feel. Kevin
'Bloody' Wilson's carols were a particular hit.
We're heading off to
Salisbury on Friday afternoon where we'll be meeting up with Tall Paul,
Gus Lipman and Sarah Mc for our Christmas weekend festivities. The turkey's been
ordered from Marks & Spencers and poor Sarah has scored the job of doing
the rest of the food shopping. The plan is to go to midnight mass at
Salisbury cathedral and eat a lot of ham and turkey on Christmas day.
Fingers crossed for a white Christmas!
We hope that you all have a lovely Christmas day and a happy start to
2005. 'Speak' to you all in the new year!
- 22nd December 2004
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Smiles and snow. |
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Updated 4 January 2005
© Copyright K&A Scott
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