won't you come out to play?

hello from the big bouncing bosoms of ye olde home-and-heart-land. we survived 24 hours in transit and got here at lunchtime.

we were met by a lovely driver (thanks mama ros!) who wore a very smart hat, and only smirked a little bit when we mentioned that we had had to pay excess baggage (burke and wills were lighter travelers than us. for serious.)

my mummy was here when we got home and she made us tea and ushered us into showers, and then served us homemade soup and chickpea pancakes. she had already cleaned the whole house, put fresh sheets on our bed, etc, before we got here. she let us sleep for an hour, then made us go for a walk, came with me to get groceries, and soon it will be a totally legitimate time to go to bed! huzzah!

will post photos of last days in london soon. possibly tonight. possibly tomorrow. we'll see how long i stay conscious!

hello again! london continues to be very pleasant, and we are very comfortable and well looked after at chez katz. it's so lovely of dan's folks to put us up like this in their beautiful home!

i left off at the end of our second day in paris.

the next day began with a walk through the marais (the suburb of paris where we were staying), and a look at some stalls at a local market


when have i ever passed up an opportunity to take photos of flowers?


a mysterious mushroom tree (there was no angle to take this photo from that didn't have a busy background - but if you look hard enough you get the idea :p)


fromage! nomnomnom!



our walk took us to a garden with a name that were completely unable to pronounce. we sat there for a while and ate grapes and drank orangina. very pleasant on such a bright sunny day.



then we took the metro up to montmatre to see sacre coeur. here is sajee, with the view from sacre coeur spread out behind her:


the cathedral is a beautiful sight - especially when set against a bright blue sky



inside sacre coeur


i'm not sure how i personally feel about the catholic god, but i do respond to the idea of the virgin mary. whoever she was i'm certain she was an extraordinary woman. i lit a candle and placed it at her feet with a prayer for mothers and children, and for courage, compassion, and love.


we had lunch in montmatre in a little cafe where a man played cello to the diners. my salad had five kinds of cheese in it. win!

in the afternoon we went for a drive around the city and saw some of the big sights again. it was such a lovely day, and this was the perfect way to finish it.

bonjour! we are now back in london after a wonderful few days in paris. last night we were honoured with an invitation to spend rosh hashanah with the katz family, which involved much good food, wine and merriment, so i've left updating til this morning. i'm going to have to report on the paris leg of our journey in several parts, but i'm hoping to do that over the course of the day.

so! we had an uneventful flight and took the most expensive taxi ride of our lives to our little apartment in rue du temple in the marais. it was the cutest, frenchiest apartment you can imagine. to get to it you had to climb up four flights of old wooden stairs that got narrower and more rickety as you went. there was one more staircase once actually inside, and you could actually see roof tiles between the steps - we were staying on the roof! it had a curved ceiling with exposed beams so it felt like sleeping in an upturned boat. on the roof. it was so cool!

a short trip to the monoprix down the street saw us set up with the parisian necessities:


then we had an earlyish night.

the next day we started with a visit to the glorious and imposing notre dame. on the way we passed this very interesting fountain:

all the little contraptions in it whizzed and turned and moved with the water flowing through them. it was very cool.


i'm thinking of making a book entitled 'stained glass windows i have loved' - i'm pretty sure i already have enough material just from this one trip


the pope candles puzzled us until we found out a few days later that he'd recently visited the city


i was very impressed with the general beauty and splendor of the whole cathedral, and then we rounded a corner, i saw this, and it absolutely took my breath away. there was something about the richness of the purple glass, and the sheer size and delicate beauty of the whole thing that just stopped me, gaping, in my tracks.


after notre dame we went for a walk down the seine to the louvre.


i have been very nervous about this ever since we decided to come to paris - so much wonderful art, so impossible to take it all in! we decided to have lunch intheir restaurant (very delicious, btw!), look over a plan of the gallery, and just choose a section. we ended up taking in most of the richelieu wing, including the 15th-17th century dutch and german paintings, as well as some renaissance & medieval tapestries and objets d'art.





after all that excitement, and serious sensory overload, we had to have a nice long sit in les jardins des tuileries with some macaroons. oh yeah, they're gluten free! *happy dance*




stay tuned for the next installment! ♥

hello from the beautiful city of bath!

a quick catch up on the last couple of days - mostly in photo form (again) :)

we had a lovely last morning in stratford-upon-avon. we visited the beautiful churchyard of the holy trinity church ( more graves, and some weeping willows )

then it was time for a last stroll through the rsc gardens...


a farewell kiss for mr tennant...


and we drove to bath - we took a stroll around in the evening light and it was really beautiful




today we have been wandering happily around bath - ( home of jane austen, pretty architecture, and other cool stuff )


i really love this city. it's so old and so majestic, and it's easy to imagine yourself right into a jane austen novel here. am very tired now, though, so i won't ramble any more. big kisses to you all xoxoxoxox

hello from the united arab emirates!

i wish we had time to go and see more of this place. they've made the airport so beautiful that i can only imagine how wonderful the rest of it must be.
when you walk into the central hub, this is what you see:



everything is domed and tiled. it's more than utilitarian. it's just lovely.
muslims are celebrating the holy month of ramadan, so everything is decorated with lamps, moons and stars. it's so pretty. also, i'm glad we've flown in at night because it means we can eat if we want to. the whole nation is fasting during daylight hours and it is forbidden to eat in public places.
in the airport everything is in english as well as arabic, and all the staff speak english so we have had no trouble communicating with people. announcements on the plane were in english and arabic too. arabic sounds so lyrical, and the script is so elegant. i think i'd like to come back here one day and actually go and spend time finding out about this place and its people.







i had an asthma attack on the plane, but they had ventolin so it was fine. i got to go up to the front of the plane and sit in the first class lounge while they found me a puffer in the first aid kit.
apart from that, the flight was reasonably uneventful. i did some sewing, watched 'made of honour' (one of the worst movies i've ever seen), an episode of red dwarf, read a bit and, most importantly, slept. i have no idea how long i slept for, but it was definitely more than half the 14 hour journey.
saj didn't sleep as much as i did, but she watched more movies. i think she's pretty tired now. poor duck.


we board our flight to london pretty soon, so i'm off for now!
*kisses*