So have now been working with Defra for about 5 weeks. It's all going well and I'm learning a lot about Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies - yep mad cow disease and scrapie... Don't think this will help me in Australia though as luckily our sheep and cattle are free from these diseases. But - I'm having fun redoing the science part of the website and doing helping manage the 100 or so research projects going on around Europe.

Happy Easter to you all!!!
I'm spending the weekend in London. I originally had thought I'd go away but with all the to-ing and fro-ing with me moving house and working lots and not really having access to internet etc. I gave up on that idea. And it's a lovely weekend in London with the clear and sunny weather anyway. Hung out today at Clapham Common - a huge park with numerous soccer balls, footballs, hacky sacks, frisbees being flung about the place in between people enjoying beer refreshments - and tomorrow I'm going to check out the famous Oxford vs Cambridge rowing race on the Thames.

There's a lot to see in London and below are heaps of photos of what I've been up to. Leilani (who's gone to Norway for the long weekend with JT) and I have spent quite a bit of time checking out some of the key attractions.

One weekend we decided to check out the famous Borough Markets - gourmet to the hilt!!!!!
The food available to taste-test is divine.

Those pig heads are great ads for the brilliant pork and apple sauce rolls we had for lunch.



After the markets, Lei and I walked across Westminster Bridge and went our separate ways. Lucky (?!!) for me, I stumbled right into the NZ Waitangi Day celebrations in Parliament Square - thousands of people in black streaming together, beers in hand.
The view from Westminster bridge of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. I walk past these two famous and beautiful landmarks on my way to work everyday. Now I reckon that is VERY cool!!!

Westminster Abbey

Waitangi Day celebrations... Looks all very patriotic but despite their numbers the kiwis forgot to do their scheduled haka at 4pm...


After that I headed to beautiful St James's Park. There were lots of people enjoying the sunshine and the squirrels!!
Neat trick!

Awwww cutie with a nut.

The walkway in St James'

So Waitangi day was on the 6th Feb and two days later London (and Hertfordshire) got blanketed with snow.
View from my window in Herfordshire

Some VERY industrious people made a whole family of snow..people... Anyway, I loved the fact that the biggest one had a mug in his hand and he was a good 8ft tall!

Lei and I checked out the Notting Hill markets one day too. It was very busy and we didn't buy anything, except for food :)
Lots of London souveniers available - I particularly like the women's undies that say 'Mind the Gap'

Did someone say 'home-baked goodies'????

After the markets, Lei and I went for a walk in Kensington Palace Gardens and I got up close and very personal with a particularly familiar swan. Nothing about me being a human seemed to scare him at all.
My training with old and partially blind chooks meant that I wasn't worried when he beaked skin instead of bread

Kensington Palace gates.

So after living in Hertfordshire, and being looked after so well, it was time for me to move out :) Through my UQ mate Andrew (remember I met him on the roof of the backpackers in Athens in August 06?? Yes, of course you remember...) I moved into a household of New Zealanders (Andrew's mates) and one Aussie in good ol' Acton (a suburb famous for having 'antipodeans'). I was what they call a dosser - someone who crashes on a couch, or in my case, in the backyard cubby house.
Inside the Loveshack!! (Being woken up one Sunday morning after too many beers with the B52s rendition was quite entertaining... .well, for the first couple of times it played)

And now, if you've managed to get through all the above - you're now in the PARTYING IN LONDON PHOTOS part of the blog.
At Acton's own (brilliant) Redback Tavern!!! Jenna and some other kiwis - complete with BATMAN!!!

And there's Andrew, Mike, Rose, Danni and Jenna (in the hat)

The brilliant band... And the drummer was cute, let me tell you...

And, St Patricks Day. We ended up watching lots of rugby first and then playing around at the Walkabout in the centre of town. Jenna inherited a beard and I think some people took my 'kiss me I'm Irish' tiara literally.

????

A few other things I've been up to:
- Joined Lei, Lei's friend, Johnno and his rugby mates to watch the Ireland vs England game and then went bowling. We were all searched at the door and there was a cover charge to get in.
- Went to a Defra quiz night, BYO. I added absolutely nothing to the scores except for getting Austin 'Danger' Powers' middle name
- beers, beers, and more beers after work with many different people from Defra. I was even at the pub the night one of the girls broke another girls' nose - accidently of course.

And the lucky last photos... Random yes, but it was all part of the performer's hand puppet-beatboxing plan at a comedy night I went to with Johnno (complete with a Lurch-like character, 1930s-style poetry and a voluptuous glove-stripper) .