On the day of Nathan and Kelly’s wedding we ventured out to Werribee Park to explore the grounds a little and visit the original mansion house, built in the 1870s. It’s been extensively restored and is the largest private residence in Victoria. If you’re interested in the history of the place there’s an overview here. Admission was $7 which, in my book, makes it one of the best value attractions I’ve ever visited.

This is not at all Gerrod’s kind of thing, so Mum and I went in to check it out while the three men (Dad, Gerrod, Oscar) enjoyed a stroll and a coffee outdoors. Turns out that Mum and I were so impressed we went outside to fetch Dad so he didn’t miss out (deciding it still wasn’t Gerrod’s thing). Mum and I even dressed up in period costume, which was an absolute hoot!

If you’re ever in the area, I’d highly recommend you check out the mansion and impressive grounds!

With only the weekend left to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that Brisbane is definitely the place that Aubain and Ingrid should be, we took to the city for a scenic tour. Thankfully, the City Cat is partially back up-and-running after that whole January flood debacle, so we parked Alby at New Farm Park and jumped on a city-bound boat.

We hopped off at Eagle Street Pier and walked through the city, eventually stopping for a coffee at Brew – just one example of Brisbane’s uber-trendy urban cafe scene. The coffee was sensational!

To impress their lunch socks off, we decided it would be hard to go past Pane e Vino on the corner of Albert and Charlotte streets. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for sidewalk dining. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meals (though Kristy felt super dodgy after hers – but that’s not Brisbane’s fault!).

Our final activity of the day was to try and get a little bit of perspective on the city. To do that, we drove to a number of viewpoints which each offered a different angles over Brisbane. First was Wilson Outlook Reserve, at the top of Bowen Terrace in New Farm. It’s amazing how brown the river still is after the floods three months ago!

Next up came the view from Kangaroo Point cliffs, just across the Story Bridge.

And finally, the view from Mt Cootha. I must have subconsciously been in quite a hurry to get to the viewing platform, as I also managed to clock up my first ever speeding ticket on the way up the mountain. 77km/h in a 50km/h zone! I had no idea I was going that quickly – in fact, in a heavy car carrying four adults up a fairly steep hill, I had no idea I could go that quickly!

Oh well, such is life. Aubain and Ingrid were grateful for the view from the top, and they even bought me an ice-cream cone to make me feel better!

To me, the big ticket item for Australia is definitely our beaches. In order to give Aubain and Ingrid a sample of this, we booked a top-floor, three bedroom unit at Atlantis Marcoola for three nights. Our unit also included a private rooftop terrace which afforded us some spectacular views over Marcoola and Mudjimba beaches.

Aubain was keen to try his hand at surfing, so he and I booked a lesson with Heath at the Mudjimba Surf School. We both managed to get a few good rides, and I really took to Heath’s teaching style – though I had a bit of an advantage over Aubain given that it was my 4th attempt at surfing!

Of course, we couldn’t entertain two trendy Europeans without taking them to the trendiest place that we know of on the coast – Hastings Street, Noosa. The Threebies joined us for lunch at the always excellent Bistro C; as awesome as their beer battered fish ‘n chips is, I strongly envied Kristy’s chicken and coconut risotto dish!

We walked our lunch off with a walk along the Noosa Heads Costal Track. We didn’t make it the whole way around, though it was getting dark by the time we got back to the car, so it’s probably good that we didn’t stay much longer. I really loved watching the surfers working the point, especially as with the setting sun as their backdrop. Unfortunately I didn’t take my camera with me on the walk (I had a baby taking up all the carrying real-estate on my back), so I’m going to shamelessly poach one of Ingrid’s photos here instead.

The dark coastal sky provided an excellent setting for some Grande Florida style sparkler writing, but none of us were able to come up with anything that looked convincingly legible! I’m not sure why this is, though I partially blame the sparklers – star shaped sparklers (which we had last time) seem better for writing than the straight-shooting ones (which we had this time). This here homage to our visitors from overseas was probably our best win.

Our three days went by far too quickly! We took the scenic route to get back to Brisbane, first stopping at what is now my favourite place to eat breakfast – the Sunrise Cafe at Coolum. The sun came out in full force on Friday, so we stayed a while to bask in its warmth, and snap up some memories overlooking Coolum beach.

We had planned to visit Kennilworth Falls via Mapleton, but our plans were foiled only a few kilometres from our destination when we found the road closed due to landslip. Thankfully, our day was not entirely without a waterfall viewing, as we had taken a short feeding break (mainly for Oscar, though I had some rocky road) earlier in the day at Kondalilla National Park. We grabbed a couple of photos at the waterfall at Picnic Creek, but we didn’t undertake the 1.5km (or so) walk down to the main show.

Our drive home took us along the Blackall Range, which was just beautiful – I honestly had no idea that we had such amazing scenery sitting there, practically in our backyard! After stopping for a pie in Maleny, our plans to drive home along the Glasshouse Mountain Tourist Drive were once again foiled by road closure! And so, back to the highway we trundled; it definitely wasn’t a winning way to finish the day!

Still, after so many hours in the car, I think we were all pleased to arrive back home and tuck in to some pizza for dinner!

We were once again cursed by the weather on our Cornwall trip – it rained every day until about 2 PM, after which time the sun did its best to break through the clouds (though it didn’t always succeed). Still, you have to take the good with the bad, so we did our best to see as much as we could!

On Wednesday, we headed out to Falmouth, which is on the southern part of the coast. The town itself was ok – nothing too spectacular, though we loved the little store called “Kit”, and had we have had more room in our suitcases, I suspect we would have gone a bit crazy with some purchases. But by far the highlight of the town was lunch at Risk Stein’s fish restaurant, where I had the best fish and chips that I think I’ve ever eaten.

The fish was sea bream, which has such a delicious flavour; not to mention that they use “beef drippings” (whatever that means) in their deep fryer, which gives a very “Sunday roast” flavour to the chips. It was just amazing!

In the afternoon, we headed to The Lizard, which is the southern-most point of the British mainland. We were lucky to have the best weather of the whole trip for the 40 minute walk out to the viewpoint and back!

The coastline was beautiful, and it was probably one of the nicest villages that we saw for the whole trip, simply because it was a bit quieter, and not quite so touristy.

We polished off our time in Cornwall with an early dinner at Senor Dick’s in Newquay. We managed to get to bed by 9:30 PM, which was a good thing, as the alarm was set for 4:45 AM to get an early start on the 5 hour drive back to London!

A few years back, Mom threatened us by saying: “Don’t bother coming home until you’ve seen St Ives”. And, I have to admit, that the number one reason we decided to spend our last days in England in Cornwall was simply to prevent Mom greeting us at the airport, only to send us right back again!

Once again, we had trouble finding a park – school holidays is not a good time to be in Cornwall – but finally we did, and we hiked down the hill to the beach. It was a lovely town, and walking through all the narrow streets and then emerging at a scenic viewpoint reminded me a lot of Corniglia.

We had planned our meals for the day quite badly, and somehow we managed to miss out on lunch. So come 4 PM, we found ourselves famished, and wandered into a little beachside restaurant called The Hub. We were desperately hoping that the kitchen wasn’t closed, and we were extremely pleased when our waitress assured us it wasn’t. The news just got better when I saw crab fettuccine on the menu, which I promptly ordered, and then thoroughly enjoyed!

“Thoroughly enjoyed” is actually an understatement; before it was served, I had said to Kristy, “This fettuccine had better be good; I feel like my whole life has led up to this moment, for me to eat this crab infused pasta”. Yes, it really was excellent, and yet so simple! I’ll be making that one when we get back to Australia. Anyone want to volunteer to come and try it?

Kristy had read about St Michael’s Mount in the Lonely Planet guide, and it sounded like something that was well worth a visit, so we ducked out to see it after the Minack Theatre. We were a little discouraged at first because parking was quite difficult – we tried two different carparks before finding one that would let us in – but finally we got a spot and headed out to the beach.

Basically, there’s two ways to get to St Michael’s Mount; the first, and by far the easiest, is by boat.

For the more adventurous souls though, there’s also the option of walking over – though this is obviously recommended only at low tide. There were loads of people attempting it while we were there, even though I suspect the tide was on its way in.

Unfortunately, this was as close as we could get to the castle, given the amount of time we had available. Had we have had more time up our sleeves, and perhaps more appropriate clothing on (Kristy was in jeans and a jumper, absolutely adoring the English summer weather!), I would have loved to wade over and check it out!

Overlooking Porthcurno bay in Penzance, the Minack Theatre is quite possibly the coolest thing that I have ever seen, ever! And I’m not even a theatre fan!

Basically, it’s an outdoor theatre built into the side of a rather steep hill, overlooking a rocky outcrop into the ocean. It was built largely by one woman – Rowena Cade – over the course of her life; she was still toiling away at it well into her 80s! This alone is an achievement in itself, but when you actually see the result of her handiwork, it redefines the word “impressive”.

Pictures don’t really do it justice; you need to see it for yourself! Honestly, it’s amazing, and at only £3.50 each to visit (not to mention that it’s the only place in Cornwell where we haven’t been charged for parking) it scores extremely well on Julian’s admission price:interest ratio.

Preparing for a move is always hard. There’s the packing, the admin, the goodbyes, the mental adjustment to your new life, and the regrets about whether you’ve really made the most of the time you’ve lived in a place.

With that in mind, we’ve been trying to indulge in as many only-in-London activities as possible during the past months. Here are a few things I’ve checked out, other than steak and ale pies. It was only when I came to write this story that I realised it’s all about houses! Here’s a quick review of each, in case you’re ever looking for something a bit different to do in London.

Dennis Severs’ House

This Georgian terraced house in Spitalfields (east London) has been turned into a museum of sorts. I visited with Ariella during one of the Silent Night tours (12GBP), where you walk about the house by candlelight, immersing yourself in the sights and sounds of the house as it may have been in the early 18th century.

“Woven through the house is the story of the fictive Jervis family (a name anglicised from Gervais), originally Huguenot (French Protestant immigrants) silk weavers who lived at the house from 1725 to 1919.”

Sounds (hoofbeats) and smells (fresh bread) are pumped in to help your imagination forget the modern world outside. It’s quite cool to journey through time, and experience a London very different to the one we’ve come to know and love!

I struggled with inconsistencies through the house though: notes about a queen’s inauguration on one floor, and clippings about her death on another. Ariella struggled with their insistence on silence during the visit, but it was a fun and quirky experience!

Chiswick House and Gardens

During our time as members of English Heritage, we would have been allowed to visit Chiswick House and Gardens (in our own suburb) free of charge, but we somehow never got around to it! It’s plagued me, so I recently shelled out 5 quid to check it out.

“Created by the third Earl of Burlington, who was inspired on his grand tour by the architecture of ancient Rome and 16th century Italy, Chiswick House is a stunning homage to the work of Renaissance architect Palladio.”

The thing that’s always entertained me about this place is that, although we think of Chiswick as a London suburb and commute daily, in 1729 when the house was built it was a country estate that the Earl entertained at when his friends wanted to escape from London. As slow as the District line is, horseback much be an ever slower way to travel.

It was also interesting to learn that the ‘house’ has no kitchen, and little room for beds, as the family continued to live at an adjacent property (using a link building to move between them), and used the villa for conducting business, receiving guests, and displaying their art collection. Critics found this ridiculous and said that it was: “Too small to live in, and too big to hang to a watch”. Gotta love 18th century humour!

The audio tour was quite short and manageable, which I was pleased with given my short attention span for names and dates about architecture and art history. Getting lost in the gardens actually took up more of my visit time!

2 Willow Road

Jump forward 200 years, and you get 2 Willow Road (admission 5.50GBP), designed in the 1930s by Erno Goldfinger (awesome name). This Modernist home was equally controversial in its time, chiefly for its unapologetic use of raw building materials like concrete.

Goldfinger too used his home to show off his art collection, but made it distinctly more liveable. Designing a home for your own family is certainly the way to go if you want it to be flexible, liveable and reflect your personal style! Of course it helps if you’re a trained architect.

Most of the internal walls here fold back to create massive entertaining spaces, and there’s a platform/stage in his wife’s painting studio so that models could sit for portraits (though I imagine his kids would have interrupted their parents’ work to put on impromptu shows). A lot of furniture designed by family members was used and is now exhibited in the house, and the work of master artists is exhibited side-by-side with a framed picture of a car that Erno’s grandson made by typewriter keystrokes.

Every little feature of the house is carefully considered to be as efficient and functional as possible. There’s no traditionalism, and no assumptions about how things should be done. Skirting boards are abandoned in favour of extending the flooring a few inches up the wall or, in the case of the bathroom, all the way up the side of the tub! Apparently it’s a trick used in hospitals to avoid the hassle of keeping the floor/wall join germ free.

This was my favourite of the three houses, probably because I know nothing about architecture or art and found this much more accessible than the others! My opinion may also have been influenced by its proximity to an awesome coffee shop…

Yesterday, we joined Aubain in Ingrid in a lovely boat trip along the Thames. We picked up our boat from the boat hire company in Datchet around 11 AM, then set out “uphill” towards Windsor and Maidenhead. It was perfect boating weather, and the temperature by the water was just lovely!

We stopped and enjoyed a delicious champagne picnic for lunch on the grounds of Oakley court. We chose the spot based not only on the lovely scenery, but also on the sign which clearly stated that non-guests were welcome. It was only when we pulled away after lunch we read the other sign which said, “mooring for hotel guests only”. Whoops!

We also had to master the art of “locking”. OK, admittedly it wasn’t exactly difficult to master, but it was still a big part of the experience! We went through three separate locks on our day trip – I wonder how many you’d have to go through until you made it to Manchester?

Here’s a short video of our day on the water. Note that the maximum speed of our boat was a hair-raising 8km/h (or perhaps 9km/h when we were going “downhill”); consequently, parts of the video have been sped up for your viewing pleasure (including the 6 minutes of footage of one of the locks draining!).

View the Boating along the Thames album on Picasa or Facebook.

Dean, Lea, and Kylie had never been to the Cotswolds for a clotted cream tea! And since Dean and Lea are making their way back to Australia (taking the very, very scenic route!) we had to remedy this situation yesterday. We had an absolutely gorgeous day of sunshine, so it was a perfect day to be out in the country!

We started at Bourton on the Water – “The Venice of The Cotswolds” as they say, simply because it has a stream. Creative. We made the others take the Dragonfly Hedge Maze challenge, and they came through victorious.

Next, we hit up Stow on the Wold for some lunch. Having been there before and remembering the abundance of shops that were there, I thought we’d be loaded for choices of places to eat. But after walking around most of the town, we didn’t find anything that jumped out, and we eventually settled on a hotel who served us a fairly ordinary meal (or at least I thought so). This was certainly not the highlight of the day! We made a few obligatory purchases in the local chocolate shop before trundling off to Chipping Campden for the main event – Clotted Cream and Scones.

Oh man, they were so good – and so big! Usually two scones is the order of the day, but each of us could barely get through one!

It’s a bit of a hike to get there, but The Cotswolds always makes a lovely destination for a day trip. And now, I want some more clotted cream…