We are home :-)

Yay!  We are home again. We have had the most amazing trip away. I've loved catching up with my friends, and it was grand to be at the Olympics. Thank you so much to Hilary, Holly, Katrina and Steph who we stayed with while we were in London. Being able to stay with each of them really made our trip.

We had an uneventful and long trip home. We saw lots of Olympic athletes from a real mixture of countries while we were at Heathrow. We even sat next to a Latvian judo athlete on the plane to Frankfurt! Finn also got to have a look in the cockpit of the airbus that we flew to Frankfurt in. Lucky boy!

We were able to go swimming again at the airport in Singapore. It's so lovely to splash around and be active in between such long flights. Plus it's a bonus to have a shower and change of clothes part way through the journey.

Thank you for following us on our dream holiday. We're really excited to go back to school and work next week and see our classes and our friends.

Love to you all.

Over and out,
Finn & Deb

PS if you'd like to keep in touch by email this is our address: debmalnz@gmail.com

Last full day

We spent our last full day in England visiting with Louise and her family.  She lives in a gorgeous village about an hour out of London and about 25 minutes from Brighton.

Her house is amazing! It's amazing because it is nearly 500 years old.  It's listed and has wooden beams and brick.  It even still has the bells for calling the servants!

We had a great day, catching up, going to the pub for lunch, playing, walking in the woods and we even saw pigs, a guinea fowl and squirrels!

Our bags are packed and we managed to fit most stuff back into our bags alongside all our Olympic and Disney souvenirs.  We are only leaving a few things behind.  I'm really pleased with that.

We are sad to say farewell to our wonderful friends but we know we'll see them another day.  We still have so many things left to do in London that we'll have to come back another time:-)
Of course we'd love to see our UK friends in New Zealand too!

At the same time we are really excited to be heading home.  We've had an awesome holiday and we're ready to go home. We'll be back in our own beds on Thursday night - Yay

A big thank you to Steph & Simon who have had us to stay for the last week!  It's been grand to be back in Balham (where we lived when we were over here).

Olympic Torch

This week while we were at Olympic Park, Finn & I got to have our photo taken with the real Olympic Torch. It was an absolute highlight for us. Of course we had to buy the photos!
Here is one of them:

The Paralympics

These signs are now popping up all over London promoting the Paralympics starting soon after the Olympics end.  The athletes who take part are really inspirational!

Godstone Farm

We have had a great weekend visiting with Katrina and her family in Chipstead.  It was really good to catch up.  We visited Godstone Farm where you can feed the farm animals (goats, llama, rabbits, pigs, horses etc) and they have a small holding area where you could hold a rabbit.  They also have a fabulous  playground there that is huge and spreads out up a hill.  The children spent ages playing there.  They even had these little sleds where you could slide down wet artificial grass.  That was a highlight for Finn!

Today we went walking through woodland in the Surrey Hills.  It was very pleasant just strolling around.  We also found time for a play at the park before catching the train back to Balham.

Duck tour and more!

We started our visit to London with the hop on hop off tour and today we ended with the Ducktour trip.  We travelled in an amphibious vehicle (used in the D-Day Landings in 1944) around central London and then entered  the River Thames by MI6.  We had a very entertaining guide who pretty much talked non stop for the whole 75minutes of the tour!  Most of what he was saying matched up with what we heard on the earlier tour but I'm sure that there is plenty of fabrication mixed in too!

As we were right by Waterloo, we took the opportunity to go to the Sealife Aquarium (London Aquarium).  It really is fantastic.  We saw loads of fish, sharks and rays.  Plus exotic species from around the world.  The penguins were really popular with the kids.  The kids got to feed the rays, which involved touching stinky fish and prawns and stuff.

After today we have just 3 days left in England.  We are going to spend the weekend with Katrina and Mike in Chipstead (outer London) and then on Monday we are going to pop down to visit Louise in Haywards Heath (about an hour out of London).  It will be Tuesday before we know it and we'll be beginning our journey home.  We leave here on Tuesday and head straight home but because of the date line we don't get home till Thursday the 16th.  We'll then have Friday, Saturday and Sunday to get over our jet lag and I'm back at work on Monday the 20th.  Finn's school has decided to add in a teacher only day on the 20th so he'll have to wait to the 21st to catch up with his class.

Last night I got to chat to my class.  It was fantastic to hear their happy voices. You're the best Room 3!  Have a great time at our school Olympics.  I'll see you in a weeks time and I can't wait to hear all your stories.



Oh - we nearly forgot to tell you about something very special that we got to do yesterday. We got to hold the Olympic torch that went all through Great Britain before lighting the caldron at the Olympic Stadium.  We got some photos.  I'm just waiting for them to be released online and then I'll post them on our blog.

We have had the most amazing holiday but we are ready to come home too.  There is still heaps for us to do in London but we'll save it for our next trip. It's  fabulous to go away and great to go home.  See you soon :-) 

We will endeavor to add another post or two before we head home.

Love to you all,
Deborah and Finn

Hockey

We had a great day at the hockey today.  It was super super hot and sunny.  We even got a little sunburnt!  Whoops!  We watched the semi final match between the Australian's and German's. It's great to see that even top level hockey players argue with the ref!  Using the video ref a German goal was removed from the scoreboard! Olympic Park was once again absolutely packed and it took us 50 mins to walk from the Riverbank Arena to Stratford Train Station just due to the shear number of spectators in Olympic Park.  If you happen to be watching we should be easy to spot as we were directly opposite the cameras, right at the top of the stands under the black umbrella.

BTW Germany won 4-2

Harrods

This morning Steph very kindly took Finn, Ben and Tilly to the swimming pools so that I could go to Harrods.  I spent a couple of hours getting lost in Harrods and I stopped at the tea shop in Harrods for a very peaceful 30 minutes while I had a cuppa and scones with jam and clotted cream.

Just Devine.  Thanks heaps Steph - it's the first time I've had some time out in 6 weeks and I loved it!

Taekwondo

We had a very early start this morning with the Taekwondo.  We were on the tube with all the peak hour commuters at 7am .  We really enjoyed the Taekwondo.  Thankfully they explained the rules at the beginning which made the session really enjoyable.  15 minutes is allocated for each match.  The match consists of 3x2minute rounds with 1 minute between each round.  Points are awarded for different styles of kicks with the most points being awarded for spinning head kicks.  There is also a video ref if needed and it was used several times while we were there.  You get to see the footage as the video ref looks at it and it made is easy to see why a decision was made. 

We had a much needed afternoon chilling out at home.

Volcanoes, diving and football

Mt  Tongariro even made the newspaper here.

How cool is that?

A full day of Olympics

This morning we headed out to Olympic Park in the east of London. Our first event of the day was the men's 3m diving semi finals at the Aquatic Centre. The Aquatic Centre is amazing. It's shaped like a sting ray. We couldn't see the spectators in the other wing but we could certainly hear them. The noise from both wings was deafening when the GB guy did each of his 6 dives in today's competition. We had a fabulous view although we were really high up in a wing. We were directly in front of the diving pool and could see the whole event easily.

Afterwards we went walking around Olympic Park for a couple of hours. We got no where fast as the park is packed. I could easily believe that 100s of thousands of people were in there. You can stay in the park after your event and watch what is happening in other venues on the big screens.

Right now I'm typing this post while sitting in Wembley Stadium on the other side of London. Starting at 5pm we are going to see the semi final match between Mexico and Japan.  The atmosphere in here is amazing. We're just loving it. We have the best tickets for this event. We are literally in the 28th row back from the field in the North West  corner. We are so close we can smell the sweet smell of freshly mowen grass! We are finding the row of small camera behind the goal posts entertaining. All the media want that goal shot!  You might even be able  to spot us in the crowd tonight.

Love reading your comments and posts.

Hi to you all, especially Team Hawks who would love tonight's match.

Love Deb & Finn

Spot the difference

Finn, Ben Cox, Ben HD, William 2003 and and 2012

Balham Babes Reunited

We are now back in Balham where we lived the whole time we were in London.  Balham looks nearly the same except that the high street is swisher!  Today we've had our Balham Babes reunion and we have had such an awesome time that 2 of the boys are staying here tonight too, after much begging!  Finn, Ben, Ben and William are all still much the same as you can see from the photos below.  It has been grand to catch up as Mum's and kids.  It's such a delight to meet all the younger siblings too! There were 11 children around the table for lunch!

We went to the common on bikes and scooters and had children zooming in every direction, followed by a huge game of tag on the playground.  We've had a real fun day.  

Steph, Louise, Liz and I just talked and talked and talked.  Unfortunately Anne couldn't make it with her three as they are poorly.  We used to meet at least twice a week, once for coffee and once for our own music group, and again for any reason we could think of.

Yay for the Balham Babes

Look at the mug my coffee was served in today

Olympic Street Party

Today we attended the York Gardens Olympics Street Party.  It was absolutely fantastic.  The organisation was outstanding. They had applied to the council to close the road.  There was a bouncy castle, decorate a cup cake, make an Olympic torch, Olympic colouring activities, a York Gardens quiz and heaps more. Plus everyone took food to share with their neighbours.

It was so lovely to meet and chat with Holly and Adam's neighbours. So many people from the street came.  One of the families on the street are Morris Dancers. Their group came along and entertained us and many people had a go at a variety of dances. Then there were races for the children.

We had such a fun time. Thank you York Gardens :-)

Today we are having an easy at home morning. The children have got on so well together. I know Finn is going to miss them. This afternoon Holly is going to take us around to Steph & Simon's.  A huge thank you to Holly & Adam for having us to stay this week.  We've had a home away from home which has been simply amazing.

Legoland

London Eye made from Lego

The houses of parliament and Big Ben

Finn in an underwater submarine ride at Legoland

Finn at the gate

We had heaps and heaps of fun at Legoland today.  The highlight for Finn was driving the lego cars and earning his Legoland drivers licence.  My favourite was the lego submarine ride which actually was in a real aquarium with beautiful real fish, sharks and rays.  We both loved the pirate show which was a real life show complete with bad guys falling off a tall lighthouse and the good guys jumping off the lighthouse, a jet ski whizzing by and plenty of squirting water (not on us - on the pirates).  Loads and loads of fun.  Finn is now the proud owner of the main Harry Potter characters as lego figures.  You could buy every possible range of lego there.  They even had a create your own lego figures area in the shop with a special make three for £4.99 - naturally Finn wanted to spend his money on those too.

Yesterday morning we went for a wander through a woodland forest within Bushy Park which is right next to Hampton Court Palace.  Bushy Park is huge and the woodland area is just a small part of it.  It was lovely to stroll through the trees.  We even saw a couple of squirrels and one rabbit.  There was an awesome log lying near a stream that looked just like a crocodile complete with open jaws.

In the afternoon we caught up with Maureen Mudie, who was the Head Teacher (Principal) at Dundonald School when both Holly and I worked there.  Her good friend Kiki popped by too.  Maureen came in her Olympic volunteers uniform especially for us and told us interesting stories about what she has been doing during the Olympics.  It was just fabulous to catch up with Maureen.  She has done so much travelling around the world since she retired.  She really is inspirational.  I'm thrilled that she is thinking of visiting New Zealand again.

We have been watching lots of the Olympics on the tv in the evenings and in snatches during the day.  We have fabulous coverage here and I hope that you do at home too.  Loved seeing NZ win gold in the rowing and bronze in the cycling.  We still cheer even though it's on the tv.

Goodnight from a very tired Deb and Finn

Olympic Fun

Wellington Hanger at Brooklands Museum

Finn in the pilots seat of a jet at Brooklands

At ExCeL for the table tennis

Mens singles table tennis quarter final  China v Hong Kong

About to hop onto the Emirates Air Line over the River Thames

Aqua ball in the Docklands Area near ExCeL

Cheering on the cyclists in the time trials race through Surrey

We have had the most amazing day.  To get to ExCeL, we had to catch a train, then the tube (Jubilee line) and then the DLR (Docklands Light Railway).  As we were travelling at peak time this morning, as well as with all the people heading out to Olympic venues in the east - when we were on the tube we were packed in like sardines!!  That was an experience in itself for Finn.

The table tennis was superb this morning.  We watched 2 quarter final matches.  The first was between a man from China and a man from Hong Kong.  It took 5 games for the Chinese man to win and around 40-45 minutes.  The second match was between another Chinese man who was the 2nd seeded player and a Japanese man who was the 12th seeded player.  The Chinese man easily won the match in 4 quick games.  The second match was less than 30 minutes!  Amazing to watch.  Very fast and outstanding skills.

As we were so close we diverted off the DLR for a ride on the Emirates Air Line.  It's a cable car over the Thames at North Greenwich.  It was only about a 5-8 minute ride each way but you got fabulous views around the Docklands area of London.  Well worth doing it just for fun.

We made it back to Hersham (Holly's closest train station) in time to see the mens cycling time trials race.  The cyclists start 90 seconds apart and race against the clock over a 44km course.  We saw Bradley Wiggins whizz past from Team GB and the crowd went wild!  He won the gold medal and we watched his medal presentation on the tv very soon after the race had finished.  How cool is that?

The crowds at all our events so far have been amazing.  They are very supportive of the underdog if Team GB is not in the match, game or event.  If Team GB is there, they go wild.  I've talked with so many people on the tubes and trains and at events.  When I lived here, hardly anyone talked on the tubes or trains.  Sports  are certainly bringing people together here.  We're loving it.

Thanks for following us and commenting on our blog.  We love reading your comments - it keeps home close by.  Love to you all,
Deb & Finn

Brooklands museum

A big thank you to Hilary for having us for the last week.  We are now staying with Holly in Walton-on-Thames. Finn is loving playing with Holly's gorgeous children. They are currently in the playroom inventing a whole new world with Lego.


Today we have been to Brooklands Museum.  It is full of old cars, planes and buses.  We had a happy time wandering around and climbing in and out of vehicles. Finn & Mason even sat in the cockpit of a VC 10 all fitted out for a Sultan. It even had two bedrooms on the plane!

Tomorrow we are off to see Olympic table tennis at ExCeL.  We'll have to catch the train, tube and DLR (Docklands Light Railway) to get there.  An adventure in itself!

Olympic Football at Wembley Stadium

Wembley before it was full of people

We were sitting way up on level 5

The stand opposite us

Great Britain v UAE

Leaving Wembley late at night

Last night we attended our very first Olympic event.  We saw two pool matches of football at Wembley Stadium.  They had a crowd of 88000 people there last night.

The first match was Senegal v Uraguay (2-0) and the secong was Great Britain v UAE (3-1).  The secong match was our favourite.  The football was fabulous.  The crowd for the second match was amazing and good spirited being their home team.  Finn felt like he was the only Uraguay supporter in the crowd during the first match.

On Saturday we visited the Natural History Museum and loved their dinosaur exhibition.  As well as bones and fossils it has moving dinosaurs, some of which really roar!  Very cool.

We'll have so much to tell you about when we get back - we'll bore you silly!!!

We have our Olympics Tickets!!!

We have now picked up our Olympics tickets.  They are good looking tickets plus we get a free Zone 1 to 9 travel card for each day that we have an event.  How good is that?  Our first event is two football pool matches at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Not sure if we'll last the distance of 2 matches but we'll certainly give it a shot.

Keeping busy

Finn at the Imperial War Museum

We climbed 311 steps to the top of this monument remembering the great fire of London

Deborah with the great fire of London Olympic mascot: Wenlock

We found Paddington Bear at Paddington Station

On the London Eye

Finn writing his journal

We are having the most amazing time in London.  In the last two days we have visited the Imperial War Museum, climbed the monument to the great fire of London, spent time in Leicester Square, watched the Swiss clock chime in Leicestr Square, walked through Piccadilly Circus, visited NZ House, Seen fabulous buskers in Covent Garden, watched the Spectacular show of the Lion King, visited Baker Street in search of Sherlock Holmes, visited Paddington Station and found Paddington Bear and been on the London Eye.  Talk about packing it in!!!

Tonight we are going to watch the Olympics opening ceremony at home, where I'm sure that we will get the best view.  London is just buzzing today. All the newspapers are just full of the Olympics.

It's on at 9pm London time but 8am Saturday NZ time would be even better.  Hope you gt good coverage of it at home. 

Love to you all,
Deb & Finn