London Legends - 29th of August

Next on our list was the London Legend's Walk. We saw, the pub (now music shop) where the Rolling Stones formed, Trident Sound Studios (where Hey Jude/Rocket Man/Crocodile Rock/Candle in the Wind/Bohemian Rhapsody/You're So Vain/Perfect Day/Sticky Fingers/Life on Mars were recorded), Mozart's London home, headquarters of the French Resistance in WW2, Logie Baird's office where TV was invented and Paul McCartney's Office.

Changing of the Guard - 29th of August

We rarely take time out to appreciate how amazing London really is, so this long weekend we bought two LondonPass tickets with the aim of seeing all the tourist stuff we normally neglect. Our first port of call was Horse Guards Parade to see the Changing of the Guard. The star attraction was the chap in the photo to the left who kept the crowd amused with his lewd comments to the soldiers such as "Tom, Tom, kiss me and I'll turn into a Prince" and "Tom, Tom, Tom you are my dreams come true". After the ceremony was over we used our pass to visit the Household Cavalry Museum.

Visiting a Hero - 15th to 16th of August

My Grandmother and Mum have always wanted to visit the grave of our Aussie relative (from Singleton, NSW) who died during World War One. Joseph Morris joined the 5th Australian Pioneers on the 27th of May 1915, was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal on the 6th of October 1917 and was killed in action on the 2nd of December 1917 aged 26. The following text explains the justification for Moris' DCM and is taken from the London Gazette dated 19th of November 1917 and the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette dated 27th of June 1918 - "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty as one of a party detailed to remove a dump of shells outside a burning building. About seventy shells were removed and thereby a large explosion prevented".

We booked the Eurostar to Lille and met up with our tour guide - Florent Denaghel who took us to the picturesque graveyard of La Plus Douve Farm near Ypres. Joseph Morris is buried next to his friend George Crowhurst who died on the same day. We brought two Australian flags with us and it was a pretty moving experience to see my Grandmother of 87 proudly placing the flags on the two graves.


We took the opportunity to take a guided tour of the battlefields, where we saw an old trench, the site of the Christmas Truce, Lone Tree Crater, Menin Gate, Polygon Wood and the Fifth Australian Division Memorial.

We stayed the night at the SuiteHotel before exploring the sights of Lille. Favourites included the most intricate cake shop any of us had ever seen and an amazing praline hot chocolate:

Aalborg - 29th of July to 7th of August

I was fortunate enough to be placed on a project in Aalborg (Northern Denmark) where my brother now lives. I've been trying to arrange a visit for some time but have been thwarted by ticket prices, busy schedules and Stirling Airlines going bankrupt after I bought a ticket. Aalborg has a beautiful old city centre and famous party street - Jomfru Ane Gade (which I managed to check out!).


As the project lasted several weeks I was able to spend the weekend visiting my brother and his young family. My timing was perfect as my visit coincided with William's Birthday party, complete with BBQ and bouncy castle:

Royal International Air Tattoo - 18th and 19th of July

Carolyn was working at RIAT all weekend so I decided to tag along and indulge my obsession for military aviation. I checked out the flying display on Saturday and the static display on Sunday. RIAT really is an amazing experience and one of the few places where you get to see so much hardware on display in one place. My favourite was the Lockheed Martin F-16 from the Royal Netherlands Airforce as it performed the impossible to techno music (typically Dutch) and is manufactured by Lockheed Martin. At one point it looked like it was ripping the sky in two (6th photo below).

Highlights from the flying display: B-52, Nimrod, Fly Navy 100, Red Arrows, Royal Netherlands Airforce F-16, Vulcan Bomber and Typhoon:

Highlights from the static display: flight deck of a C130E, B-52, AWAC, Global Hawk UAV, F-16 and C-17 Globe Master: