LA in CalifornIA!

in the background, if you squint, you can see the hollywood sign!!!  haha

Last stop on this little whirlwind visit some of the people close to my 💜 who live overseas trip!

MICHAELMICHAELMYFRIENDMICHAEL (ooooooooooh) and his beautiful wife Kristy!!!  

Oh, and relive the memory of playing californian games on the computer as a kid.  woohooo.

i think the photos pretty much tell themselves.  i flew into LA, had dinner with Dikko (MMMFM oooooh) and chatted for a bit. kristy and dikko live in marina del rey.  the next day, i walked to venice beach and explored.  LOVE IT!!!  i then hired a bike to go to Santa Monica, but my ture got flat half-way there.  so i walked my bike back.  haha.  and just wandered around the beach.  felt like i was in baywatch!!

then...  yes, i did it...  i took a red bus tour the next day.  it was the easiest way to get from Marina Del Rey to the sights. And they are actually very informative!!  Did you know........ (insert interesting fact about LA here...)

then today, well, i went rollerskating...  california games style (but without falling over and throwing a tanty) and LOVED IT!!  then we went to the getty museum.  

this is a free museum with amazing works!!  renoirs, monets, munch, and heaps of other works AND an amazing building and views over the city!!  what a great way to end my time here.  

then if course, a burger and fries for dinner before mmmfm and kristy drop me at LAX...  

GOOD BYE UNITED STATES...  HELLO AUSTRALIA (in like 16hours).

GOOD BYE HOLIDAY...  HELLO WORK!!

hope you are all well.

xx

kaaaayyyyyyyyy!!!!

need i say more???  it was lovely to see Kay whilst i was over here!!!  Miss you so much already Kay!!!  oh well, more overseas adventures I say!!  

had a lot of fun exploring minneapolis in summer with kay.  went back to lots of places i've been, but in summer.  woohooo.

also, wentto the bookshop i went to last time, 'the wild rumpus'.  Still fun!

a beautiful book tree in the corner with book pages as leaves!!  and animals roaming around the shelves...  fun!!!

anyways, leaving kay and minnesota (langenfelds etc) to spend my final days in LA!  

oh yeah!

xx

and now... MINNESOTA!!!

It's my first summer in Minnesota, and it is DEVINE!!!!  and what a great weekend to be here!!  OH MY GOODNESS, Noah and James are sooooo adorable and it has been great catching up with Andy and Mandy, Maggie, Dave and Arlene!  Yay!!!  Of course i'm trying to convince them all to come to australia.  

The Langenfelds had a surprise for me when i got there...  BALLOONS!!  purple and orange!!  my favourite!  AND, a smiley face one that just happens to match my ukelele!!  AWESOME!!  I am sooooo lucky!!!!  

i have had some delicious home cooked meals, cheerios, i got to see a town parade which Andy was in promoting joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat the musical 'blackdirt theater' is running...  (his theater company, they started up when they returned to minnesota). swims in a few different swimming pools, playing under the sprinkler with the boys and just a whole heap of hanging out with awesome people!!!  

great to see you all!!

xx

and the visits...

and the rest of my time here has been catching up with people...  london, leeds and eastleigh (near southampton).  never enough time, but a great start!!!

thanks maria and clem 

for having me stay at your houses!!!!  and for looking after me!!!  thanks claudia, eileen, neill, amy, lubos and mat for making some time to catch up with me!!!

i have had a ball!!!  and i'm very sad to be leaving this continent tomorrow as I head towards the americas... although, i am excited about the next stage, i do miss london already!!!

but i know i'll be back!

loving my adventures, hope you are all well!  

xx

trip down memory lane...

or should i say woodlane?  haha.  i went to my old school on monday, but the headteacher was in a meeting.  So then I went to the westfield to check out the place i walked past every work morning for 2 years, but never got a chance to enter.  ahhhhhh.  yep.  just a westfield.  haha.  then went back to my school.  the head teacher, 4 teachers and 3 teacher's aides were still there.  so it was nice to see them.  i do miss working there!

then I wandered back down to shebu, where i lived for 3 years...

2 years in this house, 62MG ROCK!!!  although it has totally changed.  they are doing HUGE renovations on it.  ahhh, how things change!  I also went to 

65 Pennard which lookes exactly the same...  ahhhh.  then had a look and the wine bar i used to like was still there, 

unfortunately, i won't get a chance to go there this time, hopefully next time!!!  haha.  

shepherd's bush markets look the same 

but, the saddest news of all is that the walkabout has closed down!!

DEVO!!!  anyways, i then walked down to hammersmith and have just really enjoyed wandering the streets.  ahhhhhh.

anyways, trip down part 1 of memory lane, complete.  now to just enjoy the sun and parks and wander more of central london.

have a great day!

:)

xx

belgian itinerary...

we have a plan!!!!!  or do we??  pick davina up at brussels airport 1:00... beer and fries in brussels, cultural experience, drive to zealand, stay the night, meal with more beer and conversation!  check!!  or, traffic is really bad...  arrive 1hr late, miss the turn-off to brussels, going to gent, too hungry, so stop off to try and find affligem, lost affligem, getting hungry, lots of fries shops are closed...  what's going on??  FLANDERS DAY!!!  National Holiday!!!  shops are shut...  WELCOME TO BELGIUM!!  nevermind...  arnout, patrick and i have a car, laughs and no idea where we can go.  let's redesign the itinerary and just enjoy!!  good plan...

  found some fries!!  tick!

found some beer!  tick!

we then went to gent, sint niklas and had many more beers (well, arnout and i did as patrick was driving...  thanks patrick!), we didn't buy any belgian chocolate this time, so i'll just have to go back!!  haha.  hotels were all booked out being a public holiday and all, so we went back to arhnem.  i had now booked my flight to london...  do i leave saturday or sunday? having too much fun, so i leave suday!!  from dortmund, germany.  

saturday...  sleep in, no...  patrick calls and arnout and i jump in the 'electric' car and we have our cultural experience not in zealand, but in utrecht...  where arnout works... i have my obligatory croquette sandwich!  and we go to a museum, the dick bruna house and the Rietveld Schröder House...  OH MY GOODNESS...  AMAZING DESIGN!  but where would i put all my shoes?  haha.  

davina's turn to drive the electric car!!!  woohooooo!!!  right tight...  right tight!!!

then running late again...  check...  have another beer, a licorice ice-cream and head to sjoerd's house for a hello davina dinner!  yay!!!  thanks sjoerd!!

back to arnout's to get changed and take a bike ride around town and back to sjoerd's for his birthday party...  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SJOERD!!  actually the second of his birthday's i've celebrated with him at his house!!  hopefully not the last!!  after maybe possibly a few more grolschs than needed, walk back to arnouts for my last night in arnhem this time.  (oh and of course a call to nikko!  hi nikko!!!).  breakfast in a lovely cafe in arnhem with arnout, patrick, hanuka and unfortunately not sjoerd (still asleep after his birthday party), car swap and drive to dortmund to go to next stop london...  

got a little harassed at the airport.  lucky i had my onward itinerary printed, think the customs guy thought i wanted to stay... no!!  i just want to visit my friends and then go to america!!!  haha.  luckily, he believed me and let me through!!

God bless national express for having wifi on ther bus service, so i can update my blog for free and not have to waste quality time catching up with friends or sleeping time updating it!!!  woohoooo!!

ok.  so, off to london victoria and then have to decide by then what to do thos afternoon before i meet up with maria.  might go visit st barnies.

thanks arnout, patrick, sjoerd and hanuka for a lovely time in belgium, netherlands and germany!!

love to everyone.

xx

france!

*this blog post is being done on my phone.  sorry if it is hard to read...

davina style photo in Nice, apparently people call the selfies, but we prefer 'davina style!' haha, i'm sure i've been doing these photos since before the term was coined.  haha.

a pebble beach tunnel in antibes, still didn't get for a swim in the mediterranian this time...  whoops.  maybe next time.  i DID however dip my feet in, quite a few times!

hiking and doing yoga with camille, alex and melodie in french alps.  we were more than 2400m.  i'm pretty sure i was above the height of mount kossie in australia.  no woder i was out of breath!!  oh, and it snowed on us that morning...  so from snow in the alps to the beaches of nice...  ahhhhhhj....

camille LOVES her origami and for their wedding, she made everyone's name as an origami earring shape and then we had to match our shape and paper up with our table setting...  hours of love and patience went into making these, and they looked...  AMAZING!!!!

so, after playing ukelele at the wedding and feasting on fine french food, hiking in the alps and catching up with my friend oscar in nice/antibes, it's time to book a ticket to somewhere to meet arnout, patrick ad sjoerd!  hurrah!!

(camille, alex, camille's parents, victor, tomas, refuge buffiere and oscar...  THANKS FOR HAVING ME!!  and looking after me! for my stay in france!  oh, and josé, thanks for looking after me in barcelona!)

my adventures indeed...

who knows where i'll end up...  

well, actually i do!  God bless mac stores and free internet!!

today i am in barcelona.  last night i had tapas y cerveca limon con mi amigo josé.  i used to live with him in london.  brought back memories.  he has moved since last time i visited barca, and so i am enjoying exploring another neighbourhood.  last night before tapas, i stumbled upon a free percussion concert in the parc.  it was great!!!  

anyways, i'm going to go and explore barca more before i go back to france to play uke at camille ad alex's wedding on saturday.  

enjoy yourselves!

xx