MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Hi all. We've just returned to Scotland for a relaxing week off before work starts again on the 7th. We wish you all best for the coming year. Looking back we marvel at all the places we've visited and wonder if perhaps this year may be a little less exciting in the travel area. We're exhausted from our flitting around!
We really missed everyone over Christmas so we had a quick trip home to Melbourne last week...no sadly only Melbourne, Derbyshire, England, but they have a good pub lunch!

Late 2007 we managed to catch up with Jane's old school friend Melissa and her husband, Ben. Together we wandered through the empty Spittlefield markets (now we know well that its closed on Saturdays) and made a group decision to take to bus to the Borough Markets for "the best chocolate brownies in the world" says Ben (and now Greg and I!). A choir was singing carols and we drank some warming mulled wine whilst listening and perusing the stalls. Following the fabulous food we decided a rest was in order and so we watched the new film "The Golden Compass" at Canary Wharf in West London. It was thrilling to see places in the film that we'd actually been to during the year, eg. Oxford University and the Painted Hall in Greenwich (see below).

Back in Kilmarnock the Radiology department held their Christmas party at the Ayr Racecourse. It was a terrific night with lots of dancing and laughs. And might I add we scrubbed up quite well!

Work finished on the 21st of Dec for us when we drove almost 11 hours from Irvine to Brighton. We seem to be getting into the habit of driving hours and hours at Christmas. Last year we had a great time in Adelaide with Greg's family.
Our great friend Beck had arranged for 9 of us to rent a town house right in the centre of Brighton. So with 5 radiographers, a radiotherapist (and their partners) we tried not to talk about X-rays for the whole five day break. We ate vast amounts of fantastic food, played trivia games well into the night, spoke to family using Skype, shopped in The Lanes, danced the night away at the Honey Club and even managed a jog somewhere between all that.

Zaidee was horrified at the amount of food on her plate. And she hadn't seen the dessert options yet!

Sherryn enthusiastically popped her Christmas Cracker to reveal a trending looking hat (required attire for the day), a hair bobble (these crackers must have been on the shelf since the 80's) and a terrible joke (not worth repeating).
On Boxing Day we said our goodbyes and drove to Guildford to recover at Bron and Jerome's lovely house. To break up the drive back to Scotland we had a lovely 2 night stopover in York where Jane first went to school. It was great to test her 4 yr old memory. Unfortunately Dad told us the wrong house number so we made fools of ourselves taking pictures outside the wrong house for nothing. Lucky we didn't get arrested. The Minster (Cathedral) is just as impressive even though I've grown a bit since the last time I saw it.
Again the free walking tour of town did us proud - the volunteer was full of interesting facts. York has the most amazing varied history. It feels very Medieval walking through the narrow streets with houses leaning right over you.