O'd to Justin Miller

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BOY
O'd to Justin Miller

Once upon a time there was a man,
who wasn't my biggest fan.

We look back at those days and joke,
which is usually followed by an ass poke.

Everyday I miss many things about me and you:
from digging for details, to watching family on D.Phil argue.

Im sorry I will miss out on Saturday,
I hope you dont have a 22nd replay!

Now I just want to say...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY!
ENJOY

(sadly that took a lot more effort than it looks like)

Buda to the Pest

Were home safe and sounds, and we fell in LOVE!

Althought Budapest doesn't naturally pop into your head when you think of Europe it is a spot that I would definately tell people not to miss out on. It had def. giving Barcalona a run for its top spot of favourite places... it was such a relaxed and beautiful city, and our adventures begins!



FRIDAY,
Since it was Livys break I was able to get Friday off so we booked a flight for 6:55am, which althought sounds horrible it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Rita slept over here and we caught the night bus at 2:30am, but our driver was quite possibly one of the nicest strangers I have ever met and he helped us find a safe way to where we had to be. Anyways we got to Budapest at about 10:00 and check into our hostel. Our hostel was very chill we shared a room with 7 other girls so it was super busy but they were all nice, shockingly enough 2 of them were from Canada: BRANTFORD and Hamliton... what a small world eh! Since Friday was sunny we decided to go to the Castle District this day incase that the sun left us Saturday. The Castle District is on top of this mountain and if you didnt guess it, it has a castle! The castle has now been turned into different government buildings but it was still beautiful. Here was also Fishermans Bastion a sort of look out where you could see the entire city (my favourite, see picture!) Althought you couldnt go into the castle you could go under it into the Laberyth which was 1200m of underground caves... and we did! We had fun exploring down there and getting lost. The lack of sleep caught up with us and we took a nap Friday, but then got up to head to a Turkish Bath. We found one that was open from 10 - 4am so we set out for it at about 11. Of course us being us we got lost... but we found this beautiful mountain with stairs, bridges and monuments on it, so we climbed up about half way and then headed back down to find the bath. The Turkish bath was beautiful, a little to hot for me but that was ok because there were 5 different baths in total with different heats so I went into a smaller one, and ended up falling alseep shortly in it, so relaxing! We left at about 2 and headed back to the hostel for bed.



SATURDAY,
Saturday we woke up relatively early to score a free breakfast from the hostel... WAS NOT WORTH IT, worst free breakfast ever but thats okay we made up for it at the Great Market Hall with fresh pastries. We started our day off here, it was two floors of glory hahaha the first floor was ALL FOOD... fresh fruit, pastries, meat, spicies, everything basically and the second floor was all market items. From there we headed back to where we went the night before to take pictures during the day and to find St. Stephens Basilica. After mistaking it for a different church we lucky stumbled upon it, on our walk to Parliment. But by the time we reached Parliment after stopping to shop (i bought a new jacket for 8 quid!) but it was closed for the day so we planned to head back Sunday. From here is where we found The Altair Teahouse... probably one of the coolest establishments I've been too. I loved it hahaha it was so chill and the tea was so good, I was actually able to buy some and bring it back with me! It was set up like a treehouse with many different little floors, low ceilings and ladders. There were beanbag chairs to sit up with low tables, very cool. Rita and I enjoyed tea and played cards. From here we went for our second dinner in a pub close to the hostel. We were the only ones in it but the food was so yummy... food in Budapest is soo cheap we got apps, a meal and drinks for around 10 quid each! After dinner we headed to the hostel for our dance party (ie. to shower and listen to her ipod loudly). We were planning on using the hostels hooka but it was broken so we just headed out on our own mini pubcrawl, we were going to head to another area but there were tons of pubs around us we just stayed locally because there tube closes at 11:30... Ballocks!



SUNDAY,
Since we missed Parliment Saturday we made sure we caught the English tour Parliment offered on Sunday. It was the first thing we did and I found it very interesting, not only was the building phenominal with hand painted windows, marble columns etc., but the process and stories behind building it were very neat too. For example the hand painted windows were made during WWII but the artisted didn't want them destroyed so he hid them in the cellar but he was killed in the war so nobody knew where they were and it was an accident that someone found them and then they put them up, and with the money they spent on Parliment a town for 40,000 people in Hungary could have been built, and lastly they have everything in Parliment: hairdressers, dentist, spas ... everything. Anyways ya it was cool! From there we went to City Park where Heroes Court and a castle were. Heroes court is the largest square in Budapest and its a war memorial. From there we went back to the centre of Budapest for a while then ended the trip with another vist to Altair Teahouse for tea and a hooka this time!

One of my Favourite Trips to Date!
GO TO BUDAPEST.
(sorry this was so long)

Valentines Weekend

Rita and I had a very romantic london weekend, which was needed to minimize the fact that I was missing Daniel uncontrollable this weekend. So the cure to being emo is keeping busy so you don't have time to be emo, and boy did we succeed at keeping busy.

Saturday was a sunny day so we started it off with a trip to Greenwich, went market hoping and then decided to tick off a to-do item by getting fish and chips in NEWSPAPER! Yes, i've only lived here for 6 months and I just got my first newspaper experience, and it was FABULOUS except for the state my stomach was in afterwards haha but it was totally worth it! From Greenwich we went to Covent Garden for some browsing. I've come to realized that my favourite busker is located in Covent Garden, it think ive always known this but I just put two and two together this weekend. He is very talented, and I even looked if he had a CD but he didn't, but it made me realized that I'm gonna go for dinner at a resturant around him and sit on their patio so I can actually enjoy his talents without hoovering around him like a tourist, because WERE NOT TOURIST!

From there we headed over to Tower Hill, because we had tickets to go and share champange on the towerbridge for our Valentines date. Yes, it was full of couples and this didn't help my longing but the top part of the towerbridge isn't always open so it was an opportunity we couldnt pass up.

Rita and I standing in line to go up the Tower Bridge

We didnt have tickets till 9:30 so we were planning on getting dinner and drinks before hand. So we found this cute sports bar and we bought a bottle of wine (compliments of Mrs. Reda for a Valentines day treat). We were havent a blast and just about to order food, when the bartender came over to chat, he had just finished work so him and his buddy were heading to another pub that had live acoustic music (a canadian guy was performing), so they invited us for a drink. We ended up going with them, they were nice, not forward and just were chatting, and the Canadian was actually really GOOD! But when it was time to leave they gave us there card and we left, and headed off to continue our DATE, thanks boys but it wasn't about to become a double date! So we were able to be ontop of the Tower Bridge for an hour, and the view was amazing, and they had a live band and everything up there. It was actually the first time i've enjoyed champange too, now I dont know if this is because it was a classy brand or if it was just because I was already drunk at this point haha but none the less it was yummy! Rita and I even got a token to remember it by, they had one of those penny press machines like they have at Disneyland so we both got a penny with the towerbridge one it!

Rita and I at our romantic Italian dinner

After the Tower Bridge we were both hungry because we skipped food to go to the other bar, so we headed to Leicester Square to find dinner. In our nature we went to an Italian resturant and shared pizza and pasta. Its funny that when you have two girls spending Valentines Day it turns out far more romantic than it would if you had done it with a boy. By the time dinner was done we had missed the tube and had to take the night bus home, oh night buses are always an adventure. And like any good night it ended with us both passing out on eachother on the way home!

Sunday we continued the romance, with lunch and a movie date. Its funny the things you crave when you don't have them accessable. I ordered a hamburger because Dan had mentioned them on the phone and I was jealous. We went to see "Hes just not that into you" and it was a horrible idea to do when your lonely on valentines day hahaha I left it an emo mess. It was an okay movie but I have decided that I am not going to watch girly, emo films unless I can leave them with Dan or when I can go and see him after to avoid a night of drepression. But meh, i'm over it and my emo status has left... and IM GOING TO BUDAPEST FRIDAY MORNING!

Like I said before its mid-term for Livy so we have been hanging out more, they just got bunkbeds and are loving it. I'll try to post before I head to Budapest about the week but if not I'll have tons of stories when I return!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone,

Love from Jenn and London

I LOVE THRUSDAYS

hello everyone its ME again haha, I love entertaining myself on this blog!

Strangly enough i haven't written about my thrusday night in this blog yet, i think its because i always write after a weekend so thursdays have been forgotten. BUT no longer will i push them aside because they deserve the spotlight for once.

Every thursday is our nanny night... we started as a group for 4 girls going to the local pub and now there are about 12 of us who will get together thursdays trying out new pubs. We have yet have all 12 at the same time because everyone has different things going on but none the less its great. Its actually crazy how many people are au pairs in our surrounding area... and all the credit goes out to Matilda for branching out and meeting them! Last night there were 7 of us and shockingly I was the oldest... it was funny after they had already served me TWICE on the third round they decided to ID me. Since it was a small bar (and i was kinda drunk) I said to her, your ID me now, after you've already served me twice haha and we shared a laugh, it as obvious her boss got her in trouble because he was standing right behind her... and then he decided to ask me for my ID too! I WASNT EVEN ACTING DRUNK OR ANYTHING... so shes like its okie its 86, its just from America and I said no CANADA!

Its Livys term break again next week so we have lots of exciting things planned and then Budapest is FRIDAY!

Hope you all get lots of love and hugs and kisses on Saturday <3 <3 <3 wish I could be the one giving them!

Have a good Family too!

Hi I'm Hannah!

Rita and I have a list of things to do in London before we leave and when we didn't have anything to do this weekend we decided to tackle the list, and the result was a day spent shopping in Blue Water. Blue Water is a shopping centre (maybe equivlent to the Eatons Center), and you have to take the train to get to it. Shopping Centres are big deals over here... because most shopping is done in markets, independant shops or on high streets. It was actually a really nice mall, and you would all be very proud of me I didnt buy ANYTHING! With that said Rita bought enough for the both of us haha, just teasing!

Saturday night I was really pumped for because I was finally meeting Rita coworker Leah and her roommate Hannah who I have heard so much about.

NOTE: I AM GOING TO BE BRINGING THE NEW SLANG I LEARNT WITH THEM INTO THIS SECTION OF MY BLOG... ENJOY MY BRIT TERMS!

We ended up heading over to their flat (apartment) at around 7:30 and there were in totally 6 of us ladies going out. Leah and her friends are 27/28 and I was scared of a visiable age gap but there wasn't one and we had a blast together. They wanted to take us to a bar called TheBridge but it was 25 plus, but that didn't stop us! Hannah had an old picture on her idea where she looked young and with brown hair so I reverted back to the days of fake ideas and became Hannah Freeman for the night, I was born July 2nd, 1981 making me 27 haha! The girls said I'd be find because I wasn't to OTT (over the top) so I didnt look fake. Most of these girls were single so they were on the pull (prowl) but its the first time i've gone out in London where I havent been the only taken one, and it was nice. This bar was full of camps (metros) and older blokes (guys), but in the end Leah and Hannah ended out on top, snaggin (getting) a snog (kiss). We ended our night having after bar food, which here consists of beans on toast! Leah is going to post some pictures so I will add some once I get them!

Sunday Rita and I went shopping in Lewisham (where she works) and just ended up getting some sweet deals at Primark... we got bathing suits for 5 pounds! SWEET we also planned Budapest and made some future plans for Greece, where Leah is going to join us. We are thinking about doing it for the last week we are in Europe, what a fabulous ending, will be keeping you posted!

love LoVe LOVE

Happy Birthday Squared

Isabella and her dolly stirring the cake mix.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR LIVY AND ASHLEY,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Today as you can tell was Livys birthday, she turned 7. We woke up this morning and everyone came down in there PJs minus me and we openned presents from her family. Isabella wasn't understanding that for birthdays only one person got to open presents and was a little sad at first but she got over it! Olivia got a telescope, two stuffed dogs, a colour explosion, and a few other things i cant think of. I didnt give her my presents till after school. Once she went to school Izzy and I started baking our cake... it was tons of fun, bella LOVES helping cooking and baking, its really fun! Then we icied and sprinkled it after. I told her it was our secret and for a 2 year old she was surprisingly good at keeping a secret!
When Livy got home from school Izzy and I gave her our gifts (a dog poster, and a mug and travel mug with her name on it!) while the girls played with the new toys and games I cooked them Livys birthday tea.

THEN... it was CAKE!
She was sooo excited... she said she didnt expect cake at all, and it was the best cake she had ever tasted! Which I loved because all the adults here judge me for not cooking and always using prepackaged food... so HA! Sara said she will never make fun of me for using package foods again lol.

At the beginning of the day i asked her how it was going on a scale of 1 - 10 and she picked 7, then after school she said 9, then after the cake she said 16 hahaha!

Shes a smart girl... the way to her heart is threw chocolate!

Livy blowing out her 7 candles in the shape of a 7!
(best cake ive ever made... it actually looked like a perfect cake... she called it PERFECT TOO!)

Have a good weekend.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!

winter wonderland

(pictures stolen from Kylie)

I am loving how much this snow is effecting everyones lives over here... in totally we may have gotten 6inchs if that on Sunday night and it is still effecting everyones daily lives.

On monday EVERYTHING was closed... schools, tubes, buses and airports as you all know. Monday like I said we had about 6inchs and they rerouted 55 planes from my airport. I have heard on more than one occasion that people were getting there cars stuck... IN WHAT!?!? Haha but its okay surprisingly I was enjoying the snow. The girls had never really seen snow like this, when they get snow it never settles so it was a treat. The last time England had snow like this was in 1991, 18 YEARS AGO. My mom was telling me that you all get that on a daily basis and Kyle told me it was -25 there so for them to complain about it reaching zero is great. Then on tuesday the sun was shining but yet school was still cancelled. Once again im not complaining because i got some time off from lunch duty, and I took the girls to play in the snow. We made snow angels and had a snowball fight, but because they didnt have snow pants or boots we went in our wellies and doubled up on pants! Finally yesturday school was back on but the amount of parents who were complaining about the ice and health and safety issues forced us to have indoor recess. Let me tell you that they have absolutly NO problem having us have the outside in the POURING rain for over an hour but when there is maybe 2inchs of snow on the grow lord knows we cant play outside. So for the last two days they kids have been forced to stay inside instead of playing in the snow... the first time any of them have had snow!

So im hoping that this weekend will melt it all away because right now its all waterly slush... and then we can get back to outside recess time!

PS. Tomorrow is Livys birthday!!! Shes turning 7 so ive made her a sign and Bell and I went to the shops to buy balloons and cake mix, so that will be fun tomorrow. I will take pictures!

Off to the pubs tonight with the Nannies... its our Thursday tradition now!

BERLIN BABY and a snow storm WHAT!?!?!

WHERE BACK... and boy did we have some ADVENTURES hahaha oh I love how cheesy i can make these blogs, I actually LOVE it!

I will start you off with a few scenic pictures.

This is ME, standing in the cold infront of the gate!

Rita and I were so lucky we just stombled across this, its the Berlin Dome and we didnt even know it existed =S

We stayed at a hostel called Hostel4Youth and it was in a great location and it was more like a Hotel. Even thought we booked 2 beds in a 4 bedroom room we ended up getting our own room with 3 beds and our own bathroom, which was very nice. It was located right by the tube line and it had some really good resturants and convience stores around it that came into great use. Friday night we got there at around 11:30 and then once we settled in we went out for a walk and discovered the BEST EVER italian resturant that had the BEST EVER pizza for 2.70 EUROS and so we had pizza and cocktails before heading to bed. We got up bright and early Saturday to enjoy our FREE breakfast and we headed to Berlins oldest church St.-Marien-Kirche and we found the Berlin Dome as well!

From there we went to the East Side Gallery which is a section of the Berlin wall that has had famous graffiti artists come in from all over the world to paint it. I LOVED THIS, it was my favourite spot I think... Although it was restored in 2000 it has still be weathered off is sections and there are holes and everything in the wall... althought its sad that its begining to deteriorate I enjoyed the feel of it. Rita and I even found stores that sold peices of it and so we each came home with pieces of the wall! It was a very nice walk from the beginning to the end. From there we tubed to a concentration camp, which had 13 barracks 11 of which were in their original form. We were disappointed in the sense that we couldnt get a tour because you had to book them early and even then they were in German, and also the museum aspect of it was all in German so we could only look at the picture =( but none the less I wouldnt have skipped it. On Saturday we were just on the ball we were able to get a lot done, we also saw Unter den Linden the gate, parliment and Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas a jewish memorial.

Saturday night we went out for dinner and were planning on going on a pubcrawl because Adrian and Cat suggested it, but when we showed up to the meet up point it was very sketchy and it looked more like a bunch of 16yr olds who had nothing to do so they were hanging out on public stairs listening to a boombox and drinking.... so we skipped that crown and found our own bars to go to! We spend most of our time at a bar that was on the top floor of a resturant and they DJ was amazing... we wished he worked at a club in London. I love how much fun Rita and I can have all by ourselves (HEART)! And of course we couldnt end the night without food so we went back to the Italian resturant and got another PIZZA! it was LOVE.

Sunday we went to Schloss Charlottenburg a famous Palace it was HUGE obviously it was a palace. With our entrance fee we got a audio tape tour which in the past thought were stupid but I LOVED IT, it was a nice way of learning a lot but still being able to do what you wanted. In the past we've only done guided tours but my ADD kicks in and ya so the audio tour was fabulous. From there we went to Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz the house were the Final Solution was created. This museum was so well put together, it started from the very beginning and talked about how Hitler got into power and ended with how the trials. In the room where the meeting was were the original documents from then, started from the invitations to the meeting and what was finalized at the meeting. From then we went back to the hostel to get our stuff and head home... little did we know what was in store!

The timeline of our night...
9:55pm - our flight was suppose to leave Berlin
10:15pm - we left Berlin
10: 30pm - we were told that our airport (Stansted) was closed, so we were flying into Gatwick
11:00pm - we leaded at Gatwick
11:pm- we loaded off the plane and noticed the 1inch of snow on the grow (below picture)
12:00am - our shuttle bus into the airport was finally there, we were told a bus would come to take us to Stansted in 1hour
4:00am - our bus came
6:00am - we got to Stansted
6:30am - we caught our bus to Stratford Tube station
8:30am - got to Stratford
9:00am - we got home

hahaha just thought you'd enjoy that timeline as much as WE DID... oh ya and we were suppose to be at Stansted originally by 10:40pm, but our 1inch snowstorm changed that.


Anyways, the girls school/nursary has been closed for the last two days because there was a total of 6inchs of snow hahaha love it the UK has no idea what snow is. But its fun, today we went out and played in it... and they had never done that really. Livy didnt even know what Snowpants were, or how to make a snowball!

Hope the weather there is nice!