London

Getting back to London has been like a huge set of goal posts we've been aiming at for the last six months. We've lost count of how many of our sentences have started with 'When we get to London.......' and so when we arrived again at Heathrow airport it had rather the same comfort factor as slipping into an old pair of PJs and watching re-runs of Seinfeld. We know the transport system, we know how much things cost and, most importantly, we have FRIENDS in London. The friends thing was particularly important to Bec who hasn't had friends for six months. Similarly important to Bec was getting to Brick Lane for a curry.

Staying for free with Glenn's brother (thanks Troy) allowed us to redirect the 'accommodation' part of our daily budget to the 'socializing' part and we didn't waste much time getting amongst it. It was excellent to catch up with Troy, Ros, Zhar and Asher and Leonie, especially given it was Christmas and all and how busy everyone was.

Christmas Day was a quiet, three-person family affair complete with roast lamb, trifle,modified Trivial Pursuit and enough mulled wine to fill a washing machine. New Years Eve was much the same. Tempting as it was to stand outside in -2 degree breezes with two million other people and watch the fireworks, we decided to forgo the queues for the loos and the tube carriages full of vomit in favour of a quiet one at home.

Christmas Day 2008 (and some dodgy Aussie shirts)

We checked out our old London stomping grounds. Tooting Bec has become rather posh. All the little bakeries are now quite flash and even Chicken Cottage has automatic doors. Canning Town has tidied up its act with not a single burnt out car or trench coat-wearing dealer at the end of the subway tunnel and the old pub/house at Surrey Quays was so unrecognisably renovated it's hard to believe it used to be a hangout for Polish air hostesses and subject to burning newspapers through the mailbox.

Tooting Bec tube station

The old Surrey Quays pub, now posh!!

We took a weekend trip up to Derby and caught up with our mate Gav who we'd met in Thailand a few years ago. Gav took us round to the family car dealership, the local tourist attractions (Little John's grave, the pottery factory) and round to his mum's place for a cuppa. Good food, great company and an educational on absurd British nightclub dance practices (google 'Oops upside the head dance') if you're curious.

The lack of sun in London lent itself to doing a whole lot of nothing and after tripping around to such places as Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club, the Imperial War Museum and the Brick Lane markets and curry mile (mmmmm curry), we decided it was about time to move on.

The BBC media room, Wimbledon Tennis Centre

There's nothing quite like an impromptu trip, so we booked a 27 pound rail and sail deal and headed to Ireland........