Christmas Time

Unfortunately I was never able to do the Ferrari tour. Tragic loss, and also probably more unfortunately but definately close is that we didn't get to go to a Moulin Rouge show either. We left it to late and the shows were booked out. I seem to think we've been far to unorganised with the majority of things in this trip. Somehow we still manage to see just about everything we want to see but its not usually very well planned. I'm certainly not trying to say it's not my fault. I think it was just so different in the South East Asia trip last year. Made me really enjoy having rough plans to follow because, no set deadlines; if you like a place you stay a bit longer if not you move on. In the rest of the world however it's far more expensive and often booked out to do it this way. It's so cheap around Thailand that you can leave everything last minute, it's all so well set up for tourists that you can get just about anywhere in the day, even if the bus trips might well kill you.
So it's been challenging hoping to have that same freedom with deadlines and things, for instance we've been hoping to get to Scotland to see Pete, Jai and Graeme hopefully, amazingly we might even be able to just through luck. But the fact that we've left these things so late is I think a curse of the convenience in Asia.

So on the last day in Paris we went to a flea market which is apparently one of the best Antique markets there is. At first it was very difficult to believe this. All you can see are the dodgy stalls trying to sell their counterfeit designer products and all those kind of cheap stalls that exist everywhere. But at some point you turn a corner and the crowds deminish and the stalls are all fantastic. They've got many old antiqueties(hard word to spell) and alot of it is quite interesting stuff. Alyson was very happy because she found herself a lovely old coat. ITS FUR!!! Strangely contraversial subject isn't it. I can't help but feel a little bad about fur; but then I wear leather, and obviously eat the meat which seems worse. Can't figure out how fur got the worst wrap. It's a very nice old coat though and i helped pay for it as her present. After thus we delighted in some of the Boulangeries fantastic cakie goodies. In all we tried a large percentage of the available pastries and cakes that the patisseries have to offer. On the last day we found the best one, I don't remember what it's called, but it's the one Alyson had on the train trip to London. I think it could rival the Magnolia bakery products in NY. Shame though really, would have assumed the French products to destroy the competition. Very high quality foods though, tasty.
During the evening we intended on walking to Sacre Couer. It is the church on top of a hill in Paris. I was following the maps and everything seemed to be going to plan, we found a park that was on a hill and kept walking up assuming we'd be near it once we reached the top. Well we had to ask a man who turned out to be very nice and had visited Australia and enjoyed it. Well he pointed out that it was quite some way in the distance. Anyhow at least we found that park which was very pleasant and otherwise we would not have seen, I made Alyson walk there because I only wanted to catch the Metro home, and it was our last night and we could enjoy some of the sights on the way. It wasn't a very good area we were walking through must admit but it didn't take to long to get there. It's a beautiful church with such a nice view. You can see over Paris with the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the distance. We had a beautiful smoked salmon pizza because Alyson had said she'd had the best Pizza she's ever had last time she went there. We think it might have actually been the same place because it was pretty awesome, not sure about best ever but certainly up there. There was a little fair on in a small park where Alyson got herself a nutella crepe, I opted for the hot red wine which we always called Gluevine or something when we used to make a big party of it at home; Mum would host large parties and the scent of the Wine and the cloves and things was very similar to the hot wine. So I had to try it because of that... It tasted rather terrible I thought.

Our train up to London was not bad, quite uneventful except for the fact we missed the first one but they got us on the following one which is good. We had some nice cakes that we'd brought along for the ride, as I said Alysons was particularly fantastic. It's not that bad a train ride because it only goes under the Channel for about half an hour max. I fell asleep for a while. The worst part was we didn't have any books to read. They're smooth and fast trains though, and it was nice to differ from planes for longer travel, however we did end up catching about 7 trains during the day, with our suitcases.

In London we had a Sausage Roll! It was mighty fine and we have had another 3 or 4 since. We had time to get ourselves out to Kidbrooke station which is where Crissy's friend Kevin lives. He's been incredible kind to us and is letting us stay in his room! And then for Christmas his family invited us to go there for the day. It was bliss. So much food and champagne and we played on the Nintendo and Xbox for a very long time. Santa even remembered us this year, more found us as opposed to remembered I guess. They gave us Stockings with lots of awesome little things, heaps of chocolates and little mind games and little polysterene plane that flies pretty well, even a couple of pieces of fruit. Very kind. The dinner was fantastic, Turkey and Pork and lots of nice potatoes and veges. Best meal we've had in a long time now. During the night Kevin and I accomplished something big. We finished every song on the new Xbox game they got Lips. It's a karaoke game, it had 40 songs, Alyson didn't find it impressive.

Another amazing thing has happened in that today is a Sunny day!! Crazy. I think we're pretty lucky to see one, particularly in winter from what i gather.
In London so far we've seen the Buckingham Palace and came across heaps of the streets on the Monopoly board around the city. Also we were walking along and found a Rolls and Bentley dealership, saw another Bugatti Veyron! Fantastic, Kevin has told me that theres a McLaren dealership around somewhere, I think he might be thinking of the Mclaren- Mercedes though but i'm gonna search hard because if there is a McLaren F1 in town that would be incredible.

We're trying to organise going to Scotland, we might be able to get a lift up with Kevins parents which would be great, just have to find out about flights back and so on.

Also the streets, I think around Oxford St and Regent St. in the city were the busiest streets I've ever seen, apparently it was a little more than usual due to christmas shopping but crazily they say that it's not that different to that ordinarily! For a small section it felt like a mosh pit it was that tightly packed with people.