LONDON

Welcome to the land of double-decker buses and squirrels in your backyard. You heard it right folks - SQUIRRELS!

So we have finally ventured back to a country where English is the first language. After six months of various games of charades, the world is suddenly very loud as we can understand what everyone is saying, all the time. Very strange. But despite our initial objections to doing the "Aussie living in London" thing - it has come to the point of our trip where it seems the most logical step, especially considering it's time to top up the bank accounts to fund more adventure. So we arrived in London two weeks ago and have been slowly finding our feet. We got off to a good start, becoming the first Aussies ever to come to London and not have to spend endless weeks looking at terrible rat-infested accommodation before finding something liveable. Thanks to our Adelaide mates Tim and Traci, we managed to move straight into a gorgeous house in Muswell Hill (a trendy/posh northern London suburb) on the day we arrived. It's a pretty huge house - and there are about eight of us living here - so there's always something going on, which we absolutely love. The communal areas are all very modern - stainless steel appliances (we even have a dishwasher!) and cable TV throughout. And our room is amazing - an attic conversion with ensuite - so if we ever want to get away from the household commotion, we have our little third-floor retreat. But considering Bol and I are probably the loudest people in the house, it's not really a problem!

So .... ladies and gentlemen .... welcome to Muswell Hill

Home sweet home

Our gorgeous loft conversion

With a very cool shower

And ever so sparkling toilet

Our backyard where the squirrels like to hang out

Where our chef-man Bol creates

And the lounge where housemates and mates from Adelaide get together for beer o'clock

Bol with housemates Ben and Ben. Thanks for making it easy to remember guys!

Our local shopping strip

And the park at the other end of our street (there is also a big duck pond and ice-skating rink!)

The view over London from just near our house

Now since we've arrived, we have not had much of a chance to leave the house. We call it the "financial forced grounding" - but we anticipate freedom should only be a matter of weeks away. We did manage to go out one night to catch up with our AWESOME mates we met in Vietnam, Grant and Dave. And we have done a "walk around London Bridge" day. But apart from having some mates around at our place and job-hunting, there's not much to add about our first two weeks here. Except this one heartwarming story:
Dave (champion in pics below) came around to our new house a few days after we arrived and brought with him about a million tupperware containers filled with amazing Indian food. His mum and dad had cooked it for us as a "welcome to England" type housewarming gift. Awwww ... the people you meet when you travel!

The London tube system is a crazy, crazy thing to get used to

The River Thames with St Paul's Cathedral in background

London Bridge is falling down ....

Our champion mate Dave at our travellers' reunion

First the camel and now this - Should I be worried?

Grant (who we travelled with for 6 weeks in Asia) and new girlfriend Kristen