Easter

I had 4 days off over Easter, but unfortunately there were only 2 in a row, so we couldn't make very big plans. Daniel passed his CCNA exam in computer networking, so hopefully this will help him out with finding a job in networking. It is great as he studied so hard!

On Thursday we went into the City for a bit of a look around. We went to Hyde Park. It was really nice. I seem to prefer the more manicured parks than the scrubby unkept bushland like Hampstead Heath and Brent Reservoir. We did laugh though at the group of hobos who were all sitting around sharing a carton of beer. They were being clean, and were putting all their empties in a bin. There were also lots of squirrels. They are cute.

We caught up with Murray on Friday at the walkabout (aussie pub) was a good day and had a few bevvies. I also indulged and had the chocolate cake which was awesome but felt very guilty afterwards.

Easter is much smaller here, for instance in my local Sainsburys (supermarket) there was only half an aisle of easter eggs.. thats it! Certainly not the variety I am used to in Australia. I guess when you consider not everyone celebrates Easter, they dont want it in their faces. Daniel and I were lucky enough that the easter bunny came too.
Sunday was a yukky day weather-wise. I did lots of housework. We went for a walk to Brent Reservior, which is a waterway near our place. On a map it looked like it might be like the Lake, with nice bbq areas and walking paths, but it wasn't. I would more likely describe it as being the lake, but with bushland etc all around it, and a place where people dump rubbish etc. There were walking paths, but Daniel and I felt like someone would jump out and attack us. It was a bit creepy. They just don't seem to do their parks like we do.. I'm just not that keen on hanging out in the bush, in the middle of the city.

Monday we arranged to Meet Phelan in Brighton, on the South Coast. It is one of the UK's top beach attractions. It took an hour from London on the train, which meant it took us about an hour and 3 quarters to get from home to there (we live in NW london) It has a pebbly beach and Pier with amusement rides etc. It also has an aquarium.








I didn't think it would be that good, but we had a really lovely day especially as the sun came out in the afternoon (and so did the people who came to get some sun on the beach). Daniel and Phelan played some amusement games, and we went to the aquarium. As we were entering the aquarium, there were these 2 losers protesting saying "This aquarium is not sea-life it is SEA DEATH"- we didn't listen. The Brighton aquarium has been there since 1870 I think and has had an interesting history. It used to have monkeys, and dolphins but it is now illegal to keep dolphins in captivity in the UK. Compared to aussie aquariums, it was pretty poor but for the uk it did the job. we thought the picture of daniel from the aquarium was funny so Phelan bought it.


This was on exhibit in the aquarium. Can you spot the Ray? Such good camouflage.






People absolutely flock there when the sun comes out as you can see from the pictures (the pictures at top are from earlier in the day when it was overcast). They provide free deckchairs too. The place just made you feel happy!