All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey...

Wild and woolly weather is the feature of the week here. Howling gales and driving rain prevailing. 80mph winds some days.

I was working at Heathrow all week in a data centre which is not the most glamorous of places. All James Bond like with retina scans and fingerprints taken to get into the place.

I've been following England's miserable attempts at winning something internationally and must say I'm proudly wearing my Aussie badge. The mood here is that England will get thumped in the cricket - what with players coming back cos they can't take the stress and a British Lions guy also being sent home. I bet they are the laughing stock over in Oz. I was pleased to see that they managed to get over the line against South Africa though after the 2 teams spent 60 minutes bashing each other around and 10 minutes playing rugby.

What happened though with the Micks beating Oz though? I took a verbal beating over that one - had to put my England hat back on for a day.....

Christmas is 5 weeks today so I'm looking forward to seeing Pete again.

It is planned that Phillipa the doll will be filled with helium and attached to the local pub when they put up the Christmas decorations. Will keep you posted on that

As you can tell, not much happening so just a short note this week.

Hope everyone is well. Miss you all

Aussie Paul

52 not out

Scotland - the land of devils in skirts. Spent the week working up there modifying some call centre gear. Drove at 4am on Monday to Birmingham airport to catch a flight to Edinburgh and met a colleague who came over from Texas for the same gig. He looked like papa smurf so I found him easily at the airport. Then the fun started. I had a map showing me the way to the first customers call centre which was actually near Glasgow so we picked up the hire car and set off. I have never seen so many roundabouts. They were every 100 yards or so and the yank and I got horribly confused. The funny thing was that we had to do the same journey every day and somehow found a different way every time. Another thing that caught my attention was that call centre people are usually in the business of communication but neither of us could understand a word they were saying. Ken, being older than me hid behind the excuse that he was hard of hearing when someone said something to him and then looked at me for translation. All I could do was nod and smile. One day in a cafe there at 6am I asked what was up for eats. She said something and I said that would be great - blank faces all around then until another woman in there who was laughing at this point told me that she said the place wasn't open yet.

Anyway, a busy week - one day worked 36 hours straight but got back in one piece on Friday around 5pm. No time for sight seeing unfortunately and even if there was time, it was thick fog for most of it.

Saturday, Nov 11 my 31st anniversary. Went to the pub and was greeted by the locals bearing gifts. A copy of a book called Grumpy Old Men and a doll called Phillipa Hole. We spent ages blowing it up and had no energy for anything else Had lots of laughs and ended up taping her to a friends front door at 2:30am whilst he was asleep. Phillipa has since disappeared but I think she'll be back sometime soon.

Great news this week is that brother Chris is coming over on Dec 28 so with Pete arriving on Christmas Day that completes the family set. First time ever we'll all be together for the festive season and first time for 8 or 10 years we've all been together at the same place since San Francisco.

As always, love to you all. Keep in touch

P

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot

Hello again all. Nov 5 which means Guy Fawkes night. This also means that I can go and do one of my boyhood fun things - buy fireworks and set em off. I love it. Bought a big pack of F off rockets which I'll frighten all the local dogs with later.

Good news is that Pete's flights for his Christmas trip to England have now been booked - he gets here on Christmas Day around 5am which is great. He's here for 3 weeks so not all of his summer holiday will be spent in the cold. Talking of cold its been really cold here. Scraping frost off the car at 6:45 am each morning is a good way to know you're alive. One morning this past week the car temp thingy said it was -5C outside.

Brother Chris is planning to come over sometime between Christmas and New Year so that'll be great too. First time we've all been together for many years.

Early start on Monday - 4am. Have to drive to Birmingham to get a flight to Edinburgh. Working there all week with some sweaty socks. Typical. Freezing weather and they send me somewhere even colder for my first excursion. Although it's cold there have been some spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Quite stunning in fact.

Watched England rugby union get beaten by the Kiwis today but noticed that Aus could only manage a draw with Wales. Blimey. Times must be tough if they can't beat Wales....

Will take some snaps in Edinburgh and post them next week. Meantime, love to you all.

P