Took a another trip up to Birmingham before Christmas and caught up with all the relatives. Ended up staying at Ian and Ellen's place near the centre of Birmingham... had a great night in with good curry, lots of drinking?! and lots and lots of family photos! Chatted well into the night and before we knew it, it was 2am
wander round the old indoor markets then decided to have a wander down a little alley that opened up into a large courtyard... with HEAPS of markets.. we're lucky we walked that way otherwise we would have just been wondering what all the fuss about Bath Christmas markets was! Very glad we had a pretty tight deadline... otherwise could of bought heaps... particularly really nice Xmas decorations.
[Note Santa's sign advertising 'centrall heated market'!]
Early morning rise... we made the trek over to Cardiff for the Rugby... Matt was so tired from his afternoon the day before that I actually drove half the way... very unusual!... knew it was going to be a freeezing day when the sleet started near Bath!. We parked just out of the city and caught a bus in to pick our tickets up from the stadium then started wandering around the city centre. All the streets were closed for the rugby which created a really great party atmosphere... There were a few aussies scattered around... but i was probably expecting a few more really. Went into quite a few shops just to defrost... was too cold for beer (strange i know)... but the pubs were packed after about 10am anyway. 
So... the game... we had some pretty good seats given how late we bought them and the roof was almost completely closed which made it slightly warmer in the stadium. There were a few Aussies near us and we did our best to be heard over the Welsh crowd... but we also had the Welsh flag draped over our faces a few times and had the Royal Welsh army rugby team sitting in front of us... still the banter was fun and we had a great time despite the result
... was very disappointed Mortlock was only a couple of minutes though.
Had to go all the way to Wimbeldon to swap over my drivers licence... so took a day off work and made a day out of it. Worked out well cause Matt was also in town today.
streets... was really pretty with all the Christmas lights and displays in the windows.
hat a miss and, surprisingly, headed to a pub in Kensington for a drink 
and meal instead!
Moved into our new place on 19 November... We were lucky enough to find a place in our budget with parking for the cars...spent the first few nights sleeping on the mattress out of the tent and eating off plastic boxes!!... but ebay saved the day and we bought some furniture second hand to fill the space. Took a few phone calls to work out how to turn the heating on... I think the people at the real estate thought we were a bit stupid... but hey, it's not like we needed it in Australia!
