snowflakes that fall on my nose and eyelashes ...

Woz is now a free agent ... for a week anyway. His last day at work was yesterday and now has a week off to focus on his Masters before starting his new job. It was a bittersweet afternoon for him - he's excited to be moving on to his new position but very sad to be leaving what has been the best job he's had to date. I'm really looking forward to having him home for the week but at the same time will try to take Nate out for walks and different activities to make sure Woz has plenty of opportunity to study. Nothing like an adorable little boy to distract you.

Not really any other news of interest here. After what seemed to be an easy glide into Summer we've had a cold snap with it snowing every day last week, although not cold enough for it to sit on the ground. Despite that it was magical watching it fall.

snow

So much for Spring and warm days. It snowed today! Off and on all day and never enough to cover the ground but it was snowing!

good times

What an incredible few days we've had. On Friday afternoon we received an e-mail from Andy, a friend we made on our trip to Austria last September. He wrote to tell us he was in Paris and wanted to come over and visit with a friend for two days to see the boat and also to introduce us to two of his friends living in London. He and his friend Bernadette arrived late on Sunday night and from that moment onwards it was go go go.

Woz was able to take two days off work as he is in wind-down mode now that he has resigned and so on Monday we took the boat out. The weather was sensational and absolutely perfect for cruising the canal. We stopped along the way for the traditional English open chips, fish and mushy peas in the park before returning home late afternoon. Andy was taken with Nate and christened him 'Capt'n Little' (which he already answers to!).

On Monday night we invited Andy's friends and a friend of ours over for dinner and the seven of us had an amazing night together. It was an inspiring gathering of people who mixed brilliantly and some real friendships were formed and others cemented. When we decided to move to London we expected Londoners and London culture to be very English but for the first time we got a revelation of real London culture that night with a cultural mix of Australian, British, French, Austrian and Slovenian. Some of us travelling, some calling London our home, some born and bred in London, but all of us with a common bond uniting us. Creativity flowed ...

On Tuesday Andy, Bernadette, Woz, Nate and I walked all over London, heading to the Barbican for an exhibition on Alvar Alto and then to the Tate Gallery. We found a new favourite cafe for lunch north-west of London. Sitting in the huge open cafe in the sun, opposite the Smithfield market had a very 'Carlton' feel to it, especially as Woz bumped into a colleague he worked with in Melbourne who on a two day trip to London, happened to be drinking a pint at the next table.

Woz and I have grand plans to renovate a dutch barge once 'Capt'n Little' outgrows this one and we shared our designs with Andy who was inspired and excited by the project. He is very keen to get involved both in the design and build of the boat and so we may work together in the future.

Andy and Bernadette left early this morning to return to their holiday in Paris but with an open invitation for us to stay with Andy or at Bernadette's apartment in Vienna it wont be long before we see them again.

while we were away ...

Woz resigned! For the last two years he has absolutely loved his job - the hours, the people and the project he has worked on but has decided it is time to move on to bigger and better things. So, after this week he has two more weeks before he takes two weeks off to work on his Masters and then he's back into it again with a new company who happens to be his current client. He'll be moving out of architecture and into a project management role but still working within the rail industry. He's really looking forward to starting there and throwing himself into the new role. The other bonus is that they're only a five minute walk from home so he'll be able to have lunch with Nate and I every day if we're around. He'll also be able to work flexi-time so if he starts early he'll be home as early as 4pm, or alternatively if he wants a lie in he can turn up to work at 9.30 am, which is particuarly handy with a 9 month old baby who isn't sleeping through the night.

life as we know it

We've been offline for several weeks now and tonight for the first time are back on. I'm like a kid at Christmas time, not knowing which site to look up first or which e-mail to read. My mood has lifted 100% and Woz and I can now breathe a sigh of relief that life has once again returned to normal.

Over the last few weeks we've had to resort to such archaic methods of banking as queueing up and talking to an actual person, had to surf channels randomly on the TV and as a result ended up watching loads of rubbish because our online TV guide wasn't accessible, had absolutely no idea what was going on with our friends overseas as we realised that the way we kept in touch with their daily lives was to read their respective blogs of an evening and had to call or text friends in London rather than talk to them via messenger. Can you imagine?!