London : 15th October 2007

I'm back in London and staying with lovely Jim whilst hubby is in Germany for a few meetings. Since leaving Detroit we've been to Paris, staying in gorgeous Versailles and Montparnasse, spent a day in London before flying up to Glasgow to see hubby's parents, driven down to see his brother and family, celebrated with Craig & Mel at their wedding in Newcastle-under- Lyme, and then driven through to London and back to Jim's. Whew - we've only been away just over a week!

Versailles

Paris was fantastic and Versailles is just so beautiful. We caught the Metro into Paris to watch the Wallabies get thumped by the English on the big screen in the centre of town, then back on the train to Versailles to watch the French triumph over the All Blacks. Versailles went totally insane when the final whistle was blown; screaming, yelling, blowing horns and going generally mad. We walked back to our hotel amongst all this happy craziness and a group of Americans stopped me to ask who'd won the match - seriously. I asked them if they were joking (the French were celebrating so hard that you could hear them in other galaxies), but they really couldn't figure it out and I had to point out that the French had won. Bless.

We had some great meals in Paris and I've eaten far too much scrumptious and incredibly fattening duck confit - I think I'll start quacking like a duck soon! Luckily we've been getting up so late that we've missed breakfast most days so I'm only eating two meals, which may just be my saving grace. Dieting when you're on holidays is just WRONG, but I'll have to get on it when I get home again.

Duck Confit - YUM!

We had been very lucky in the draw for Rugby World Cup final tickets and had purchased some spares. Since the UK is now in the final (again) the tickets are incredibly valuable over here and we think we've managed to sell our spares (and mine) for fairly amazing prices. I'm more than happy to watch the game on the tv in the Paris hotel with a room service meal in exchange for a wodge of cash. Hubby is still going, along with Daithi, Mark and Fiona, and it should be a great game.

It's great being back in London again and I'm having a ball reading all my favourite newspapers (I just love newspapers!) , walking in Hyde Park and joining the chaos in Primark on Oxford Street. I've always known that the UK is expensive, but after living in Bangkok and now in Detroit, have I realised just how expensive it is over here. The prices on identical items in the UK are double what you'd pay in the US - it's totally mad. I'm steering well clear of the shops (except Primark which is very cheap and cheerful) to stop my credit cards going into meltdown.

I fly back to Paris on Thursday for the final celebrations and hubby will be back in Paris from Germany on Friday, then we've got a few days there before flying back home to Detroit on Sunday afternoon.