Bonfire, bon appetit but no bon bons

Remember remember the 5th of November. This weekend just past Fumbles and I made our way to Dorking for an over night stay in the east wing of Mole Cottage. Again it was a first class stay courtesy of Uncle John and Auntie Sue. Superb even.



The event: 'Brockham Bonfire Night' just outside of Dorking in Surrey. Also known as the "plasma belt". I love a name that lives up to expectations. On Bonfire night you get to watch a big pile of sticks burn on a cold night. The simple things in life...

Although fireworks can be quite explosive I find them quite reflective. You find yourself thinking of the last time you watched fireworks, who you were watching them with, what are those people doing and how can you buy fireworks on the street without getting arrested.

Cousin Johnathon and his loverly wife Harriet also made an appearance. The first time I have seen Johnathon for 20 years and the first time we had met Harriet. We also met some family friends from way back. A warm and fuzzy night indeed for 2 kids giving the big bad world a red hot crack. We want to have Bonfire Night every weekend! A top night all round. The only negative is that most of us had our legs enthusiastically humped by Beamish...



I try to understand the leg humping thing from a dogs perspective... Maybe the contours of my leg resemble a beautiful dog... I mean... If a dogs mid thigh looked like this... I'd hump it too... enthusiastically!



More blogity blogs to come.

Mitch and Fumbles xox

Stranger danger...

The Tube.

A great way to get from A to B in London. It's also a great way to get from B to O. More often than not the Underground is warm. I imagine it would be similar to standing in a fan forced oven... whilst someone opens and closes the door every so often. Therefore, if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time your face may or may not be jammed into someone's arm pit at the wrong end of the day. Stranger danger has taken on a whole new meaning.



Token tourist shot 1...



Token tourist shot 2...



Favourite term to describe a busy tube... 'Rammed'.

Why do so many people run to catch trains on the Underground? Running to A). Catch a train, B). Go to the toilet, C). Wash face after breathing armpit air.

Things I try not to think about on the Tube. Did someone just fart? How many hands have touched this hand rail today? What were those hands doing before they touched this hand rail? Is that girl wearing Jimmy Choo's? Did I leave the iron on? How many people in this carriage left their irons on? Do they have irons? If someone sneezes on a train traveling at 70 km/h will someone else on a train traveling at 60 km/h be affected?

As you can see. Catching the tube can be somewhat overwhelming.

Mitch and Zobo xo

Heathrow injection...

Last week we landed at Heathrow Airport, London. We were greeted by Uncle John, Auntie Sue and cousin Stu. That wasn't meant to rhyme but I'll claim it thank you very much.

It means our time in Canada is done and it is amazing to be here in the UK. Don't get us wrong, Canada was great! Sometimes though you just have to move on. It's like when you have a dishwasher. You know the one... it's efficient, gets the job done, occasionally there will be a spot of food on a fork... but it's a reliable source of cleanliness. However, after so many washes and a few years it starts to smell funny when you open the door. Kind of like a worn shoe with a lingering smell of garlic. So you have to buy a new dishwasher. That was Canada for us in the end. A smelly dishwasher that needed replacing. We mean that in the nicest possible way.

So for the next few years we will be here...

And here...



And here in Dorking having a cheeky beer with Uncle John and Auntie Sue in the sun room behind their cottage... We stayed here for our first week. We cannot thank John and Sue enough. It was brilliant!



The who's, what's, where's and why's.

Where: We are living and playing "Spot the Aussie's" in Fulham. A great place to live that is also full of Australians... hmmm... Meeting a fellow Aussie overseas is an interesting experience... Some will become lifelong friends, others you will add to facebook and never speak to again, many will request your friendship on facebook only to be declined and you will avoid them like that really annoying guy or girl you went to high school with... the one who you see at the pub Saturday nights, at the shops, on the bus... thinking... "World, why are you against me?".

Who's: Sharing a terrace flat with two awesome girls from England, Suzie and Abi. Suzie works in PR and Abi is a Magazine Editor. We are really happy with our flat mates... Although not really believing in a higher power we are thanking the lord we didn't end up with a South African or German backpacker. We lived with a German backpacker once in Canada. Her name was Anika. She stole the fun stick from the house and our lives. I personally think she ate it, swallowed it whole. German fun hater. So we have a new fun stick! It's bright with pretty colours and sometimes lights up when things are going swell.

What's: Zoe is back in the classroom where she belongs. Get ready for a fancy word. It's her vocation and she thoroughly deserves to be back doing what she loves. Simon... for the next 7 weeks I'll be the runner for a Silver River TV production for a BBC 2 show. I really know how to find the ladder and start climbing from the bottom. Looking forward to it!

Why's: Why not really? It has been Zoe's lifelong dream to teach in the UK, the opportunity presented itself and the cards fell into place, it was a game of two halves and next week they'll be looking to create the same chances. Sorry... about halfway through the last sentence I realised that I sounded a lot like a football commentator, so I just went with it. The other reason for moving to London is because we found our new fun stick. We had to hide it from Anika. The German fun stick eater... or as we will now call her... "The Gerfunstimuncher". Kind of sounds like Shumacher?

We have so much to see and do, hopefully we can share it with you and we'll promise to try and blog as much as we can! Love you loads, miss you loads!

Mitch and Zobo!



Final note: More photo's can be found here... A special mention for Cat and Stu! Thanks for taking us to the Notting Hill Carnival, some hilarious people watching was had... plus we didn't get stabbed. http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sjm.mitchell

Ice wine...

One of the things Mum and Jackie wouldn't stop talking about in Kelowna is Ice Wine. What is ice wine? read that... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine I wouldn't do it justice... The Mum's bought some Ice Wine and we were saving it for a wee toast in Victoria... It was time to leave Kelowna. We had a decent 5 hour drive with a ferry ride in between ahead of us...

Leaving 'A View Of The Lake' in Kelowna was hard. What made it worse was the phone call we received two hours into the road trip to Victoria.

Mitch: "Congratulations you've called Mitch!"

Steve: "Hi it's Steve from a view of the lake"

M: "Hey Steve what's up?"

S: "Just letting you know you left your box of alcohol behind... what should I do with it?"

(Insert quick family discussion in the people mover)

M: "Steve we all think you should enjoy it".

The contents of said box... Half bottle of Glayva, two bottles of Kelowna white wine, one bottle of Kelowna red wine, one bottle of the rare and much hyped ice wine and several bottles of beer. Steve had scored himself a bargain.

We were gutted... all we wanted to do that night was chillax in Victoria with some Ice Wine. Wasn't meant to be. I tried to feel intelligent after that by reading this.


It didn't work.

One of the top five things to do in BC is jump on the ferry to Victoria to see the Ferries pass each other in "Active Pass". I could think of a better top 5 but whatever. It is kind of cool.



The RTWT09 team got in a good wave. It is a stunning ferry ride.



We finally got to Victoria and it was pishing down... all of the good weather we had in Kelowna had dried up. We settled for dinner at Maudes Pub down the road from where Mitch and Fumbles live and found that in Mitch's beer the foam kind of looked like Australia... we'd had a few beers at that stage mind you...




It doesn't however even come close to Anna and John's freaky Milo induced map of Oz in Vancouver last year!!!



Cop that Captain James Cook that Milo map of Australia is better than your first two attempts at mapping Newfoundland!

On the plans for Victoria the next day was a trip to the world renowned Butchart Gardens... a very cool place!

More to come!

M xo

Kelowna

Day one involved a $65 flight from Victoria to Kelowna... bargain... looking back we probably would've taken the flight even if we didn't need to go to Kelowna. Really, who does $65 flights. Heart you Westjet!

At the same time of the said Westjet flight RTWT09 were en-route from Banff to meet us in Kelowna, naturally Mitch and Fumbles arrived with no plans for the 4 hours before the RTWT09 ETA... how is that for some abbreviating!

So in the end we had some breakfast by the lake and lazed about until the parentals rocked up!


Mum and Jackie being the holiday hunters they are found the most incredible B&B! A view of the lake....

The view uh-mazing!


It made Kelowna a 10/10.

Highlights included the goats cheese on day two, breakfast cooked by Steve the B & B owner, a cheeky game of Domino's with Dad and the weather was outstanding!

Lowlights included having to leave another day would have been great!

RTWT09

Round The World Tour 2009 (RTWT09)

We were like kids waiting for Santa to come on Xmas eve... Meeting Mum and Dad for the first time in over a year was awesome! To have best friends Harry and Jackie there as well... double awesome!



So much to blog about... so little of your reading time... or at least your attention. Don't worry I do it too. I start reading someone's blog in earnest and then I start to skim read faster than an autistic kid who is the worlds fastest skim reader. Except I take none of it in.

So I will direct you here

Holidays with RTW09

Pictures tell a thousand words or something like that.

I will break down the RTWT09 visit into some mirco blogs because I like to make things difficult for myself. Sorry I like to make the blog easy to digest.

Playing catch up on a lot of stuff. Sorry for being so slack. I blame Zoe because she is sleeping and is defenseless.


See you soon.

Mitch and Fumbles xox

The Killers

Question:

Would you like free tickets to 'The Killers'.

Answer:

Yes.



They were tops!



Also tops was the celery and dip in the Kool FM box. It was dippity goodness. There was no double dipping in play.



I stole this pigeon dance from Stevie Kidd on the dance floor in any given night club, Adelaide circa 2002. I have been perfecting it ever since. It is a hit with my Canadian work mates. Thanks Stevie.

That is all.

Mitch ;)

New Skids On Your Jocks

Question:

Would you like free tickets to New Kids on The Block?

Answer:

Yes.

My boss at the time was so obsessed with NKOTB and Joey McIntyre that it was hard not to be swept along with the hype...



That is Ceara reviewing the photo of her meet and greet with Joey before the concert... during the concert. Obsessed and then some.



Going to a New Kids On The Block concert in Canada was one of those surreal travel moments... It was no watching the sun rise at the Taj Mahal whilst trekking through India moment but... It was interesting to watch 5 guys pushing 40 strut their stuff... and strut they could. It was actually pretty good.

Highlight of the night... watching the crazy Mums going banana's over the New Kids... hilarious. Picture seagulls to a solitary chip at the beach.


Thanks crazy dirty thirties... thanks!

Mitch and Fumbles xo

Juno Adventure

Canada's music industries night of nights is called the "Juno's".

For some reason I got to work the red carpet at the said night of nights. Vancouver is Michael Buble's home town. When I told Nanna that I may meet Michael she challenged me to grab his arse. Not being one to turn down challenges... I accepted.

I had to wait a whole hour and a half just to get to the point of sighting the boob and he was being rushed through as the last red carpet guest... It was hectic and I had to go beyond my own comfort zone to get his attention...



For the record he has the perfect balance of firmness and supplenesss... in his left cheek anyway.

Mitch ;)

I wanna take you to a gay bar and spend all your money...

After Banff we spent a few days in Van Van with Ryan.

We had planned a few things which were really looking forward to. Going to Lynn Valley to see the suspension bridge and also heading to Grouse Mountain to do the Grouse Grind... Ryan had already been to Lynn Valley and the Grouse Grind was closed for winter. Mitch and Fumbles... the worlds worst travelers... and planners!

In the end it was a good thing because we got to spend more time just catching up!


Walking the Seawall...



English Bay...

Ryan saying goodbye to Zoe for who know's how long...

Ryan and Chris really liked the service at a place called Earls. Like they seriously liked the service. They spent a possible 7 days out of 10 at Earls. Sorry we wrote service... we meant servers... Hello ladies!


They fell in love several times...

The four days in Vancouver could also be compared to an Olympic event. Foosball, pool, beer, bowling, golf, beer and more foosball. It was quite epic. We had a years worth of matey stuff to do. Although I did let Australia down as far as consumption of alcohol. An example of this is not re-calling when and where this photo was taken...


All in all, great to see Ryan, great to meet Chris, great to witness Chris getting hit on in the line up to Celebrities!

Mitch and Fumbles ;)

Banff

Mitch and Fumbles the worlds worst travelers planned a trip to Banff to meet best mate Ryan and make new friends with Emma and Kade!

Naturally this journey started off with an early start. Our flight from Victoria to Calgary was leaving @ 9.25 am. We had booked an airport shuttle to pick us up @ 7:20 am. Given the fact we hadn't finished packing by 2:30 am in the morning, we did a fantastic job of getting to the pick up location @ 7:15 am. Well played Mitch and Fumbles.

We were however let down by the Airporter... it failed to pick us up. At 7:40 it was panic stations. This can't be happening. For once we were on time and Zoe hadn't dropped anything on the way here. One quick phone call to the company and one quick argument won by Mitch meant a taxi was on the way. Despite the fact the Airporter employee hung up on Mitch they did cover the difference between a taxi fare and the cost of the Airporter. Happy outcome.

After arriving in Calgary we made it to Banff via another airporter which took roughly two and a half hours. Zoe 'sleeps on public transport' Noonan slept most of the way. Thanks to the driver some interesting facts about the Rockies and Banff were learnt. Can I remember those now. No. Anyway, We made some bloody fantastic friends in Banff called Emma and Kade.



Emma and Kade are awesome. You know when you meet people and you feel like.... I wish we had been friends for years already because I feel like I have missed out on being friends with you. That's what they are like. Zoe and Emma. Kindred spirits. They like milka, they like the same tv shows, Zoe is called Fumbles and Emma is called Sir Stacks a lot. Too funny!
We stayed with them for 5 days and we had the best time. So thanks to Emma and Kade for putting us up. Also to Rich and Linda their housemates for having us as well. Another top shelf couple! The late night group chats and laughs was just wha Zoe and Mitch needed. Emma and Kade are about to embark on the next leg of their journey which involves Hawaii and being in the Ellen audience! Brilliant!



Catching up with Ryan was superb! Often all you see is smiles and good reports of what we are doing over here. It has been cold this winter and it has been a downer. Both Fumbles and Mitch have been homesick over winter and at times it is hard to keep our end goals in sight. Victoria has been especially hard for Fumbles with the teaching side of things not working out. So a break in one of the most beautiful places in Canada and the excitement of meeting one of our best friends was so exciting and too hard to put into words... but I will try. You know when you are so excited or nervous or happy about something and you almost pee your pants...Yes? Well that's what it was like. Ryan was also traveling with his work mate Chris who is a really nice guy... his facial hair made him popular in a nightclub line up... but that story is for another blog.

We are both only 26 but it gets to a stage where you realise that many people come and go through your life and people like Ryan don't come around very often. Let alone come to Canada... geez why does it have to be so far away! You are the best!




We took so many photo's in Banff and you can see them on our Picasa page, I may have sent this to you via email as well... if I didn't... awkward!

Highlights of the trip: Catching up with Ryan, meeting Emma, Kade, Linda and Richard, a day at Sunshine Village getting to see where Anna and John lived last year and not getting mauled and eaten by a cougar.

Lowlights: The cold... minus 18... are you serious, not staying longer, dry skin and chapped lips and flying back to Victoria sucked the big one.



We had the best time and the break was awesome and much needed! Bring on Mum, Dad, Harry and Jackie in May!

Mitch and Fumbles xo

Donovan Frankereiter... wow!

Last night at Element we were lucky enough to go and see Donovan Frankenreiter, his band and Gary Jules as special guest. What a treat. Some of you may not know Donovan Frankenreiter others will.



To put it plainly this guy is the dude. He oozes talent and he also surfs. Dammit some people get all the skills!

If you don't know Donovan Frankenreiter here is a great song from him...



Gary Jules was also great to see... he is very funny and engaging with the audience. You may have heard his re-working of the Tears For Fears song Mad World...



Over 11 million hits on youtube... thanks for coming.

Plus he had a really cool jacket and hat!




One of my favourite things about music is sense of place and time. Last night Donovan Frankenreiter played a song called 'Free'. This was the song that was played right at the end of our wedding ceremony. It was so good for Zoe and I to see him do that live. Sense of place and time! We were right back there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Xv4oHGUyw

You can't embed that video but it is worth watching because he does some cool surfing in it and the song features Jack Johnson.

So quite frankly Donovan you are my hero and thanks for being so damn awesome.

Mitch and Zobo xo

NYE and a Polar Bear swim!

We had no plans for NYE in Victoria...

We certainly wanted it to be a better one than last year on the Sunshine Coast sitting in the rain alone...

Luckily Mitch's work was throwing a party at one of the biggest joints in town... plans made... although he had to do a small bit of work for the evening. The NYE countdown for the dance floor in the night club... easy enough. The rest of the time it was on for young and old!









Zoe flaked it pretty hard and a god cup of tea was needed.

Highlight of the night... Mitch carrying Zoe into a pizza by the slice shop at 2am... In the line up a guy slipped over and Zoe could not stop laughing... uncontrollable laughter... the everybody is looking type laughter and please stop now Zoe. She was on top form!

We had to be up the next day for a Polar Bear swim. What is a polar bear swim you say. Jumping in a freezing cold lake on New Years day... it was the 37th Annual Polar Bear Swim at Elk Lake... In the world of internet chat OMG (oh my god) was it cold!

Could not feel the toes for about half an hour afterwards. So glad it was done though. We had a crazy cab driver on the way out who we swear was going to drive us into the woods. But hey we are still here. Happy days!

Love to you all Mitch and Fumbles xo

White Orphans Xmas!

For xmas we planned a trip to Van Van to have and Orphans Xmas with Kiah and Kasia. Our Australian buddies who are also from Adelaide, lived and worked at Hot 91 on the Sunshine Coast, moved to Canada and have also appeared in Adelaide Confidential several times. We have already established this in other blogs... but it is quite fun to write!



It was quite an amusing/draining trek on the bus, ferry, bus, bus transfer to new bus and then taxi to Kiah and Kasia's. We both had a back pack, extra bag and ski gear. After almost a year we still haven't learnt how to travel light. 'Mitch and Zobo' = Learn the hard way!

There was a stack load of snow around xmas and it had also been snowing most of the day on xmas eve. Which meant travel time was way out of whack for everything... from our front door step to Kiah and Kasia's door step it took 5.5 hours. Wowser. Delighted to arrive to a cheeky beer is an understatement. An example of Vancouver's snow dump over the xmas period...



No exit no kidding...



Might take the bus today...



Good luck digging that out!

So the four of us decided early in December that we would have a good orphans xmas and eat like Kings. K & K did an amazing job of filling the fridge and cupboards of some great grub. We even had goats cheese.


Food highlight... Kasia's beetroot dip... Amazing.

Situation highlight... Kiah's lack of bowel movements... We had all of this beautiful food and Kiah was feeling a little sick and very constipated...



It became every one's business when Kiah was trying to do his business... when he finally managed to get one away it was met with plenty of cheering and it was quite an emotional moment on day four of our stay... he had quite the catching up to do with beverage and food consumption!

Fun highlight... The purchase of a $6 round plastic toboggan! Well played Kiah!



Present highlight.. The radio DJ game... too funny!



Activity highlight... Hitting Cypress Mountain!



A very huge thanks to Kiah and Kasia for having us over Xmas it was our first one over seas and it meant a lot to spend it with dear friends.



Hope you had a happy holidays! Mitch n Zobo xox