For my birthday this year, Mel and Ben gave me a puzzleball. "What on earth?!" I hear you ironically proclaim! Well, it's a puzzle, but each piece is curved such that the end product is a ball! And, fittingly, this one builds into a globe!

I was rather intimidated by this at first, and thought it would be well out of my league; however, with the help of a few trusty flatmates, we got it all together in no-time flat (actually about three hours, but still faster than I had thought we would be). We cheated a little bit for some of the ocean, but otherwise we were rather proud of our efforts.

And, as a reward, we now have a lovely globe in our lounge! It's quite striking actually. I love it! What a great gift! Thanks very much, Mel and Ben!

Kristy came home late tonight. Upon arriving, she informed us that her yoga class (at work) had started late, because the room that they usually use was booked late for a meeting. Because of the late start, only five people showed up.

"Were the people who didn't turn up too inflexible with their times?" Julian enquired.

"I'm just surprised they let the meeting run so late instead of bending the rules this once." I remarked.

"Come on," Julian replied, "that's a bit of a stretch."

It's just a pity that Seinfeld isn't running any longer, or we could clearly apply to be writers for them.

This week feels like it was long, tiring, and busy, and yet on reflection it was actually one of the more quiet weeks that we've had for a long time.

We met up with Pat for breakfast at Roast, which overlooks Borough Market. Apparently they won "Best Brunch venue of the year" at some point, so we figured we couldn't go too far wrong.

Sure enough, the meal was fantastic! Each of us had something different and each of us said afterwards how much we all enjoyed it. My three-egg omelette with smoked trout, mushrooms, cheese and herbs was amazing (though could have done with some bread or something on the side). Kristy and I both thought the orange juice was some of the nicest we've ever had.

What's more, the view from the restaurant back out over the Markets is fantastic. This has shot up into the top 5 things to do when visitors come!

Of course, a Monmouth coffee is mandatory when visiting Borough markets, so we each grabbed one and had a wander around the stalls whilst we sipped. It was so quiet there - amazing the difference that going early in the morning makes, compared to around lunch time! We stocked up on some beautiful fruit and veges at very reasonable prices before leaving.

We finished our morning up by meandering along the South Bank, eventually back to Waterloo. We popped in to Tate Modern on our way past - the first time I've been there, no less. I'll never understand why a grid of empty bunk beds is considered "artistic".

Anyway, I thought this pub's name was funny given Julian's and my recent mudlarking experience. We'll have to come back here and try their fish and chips; though I hope their name doesn't suggest the way they source their food.

I have three weather widgets on my dashboard - one for London (obviously), one for Brisbane, and one for Fort Lauderdale. The London one is good for telling me how many layers to apply before leaving the house; the Brisbane and Fort Lauderdale ones are for telling me how many layers everyone else won't be applying before leaving the house.

I also like comparing them to work out which would be the best place for enjoying the weather. I'm not sure that London has ever won in this category.

Fort Lauderdale is today's easy winner!

Yes, we succumed to the temptations of Europe's largest inner city shopping centre by heading to Westfield at White City yesterday. But I assure you that our intentions were pure - we were trying to finish all our Christmas shopping in one day, and after scouring Oxford street and Regent street all morning, we were still coming up short. So, we sucked it up and headed out to Shey-bu with the one million or so other Londoners that were doing the same thing.

And, I have to say, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. If you could go there, say, on a weekday morning when all good boys and girls are at work, it would actually be a great place to shop. They have literally everything there, from M&S to Prada, and pretty much everything in between, including The Apple Store, Oakley, House of Fraser, Nike, The Gap, and plenty more. Actually it was ironic looking at the things that we'd bought from all the stores in the city, and then seeing them all there in the same complex.

Still, for all that praise there was definitely one major downside: the crowds. Oh my goodness, there were people everywhere, and all in that fairly uncontrollable frenzy that seems to descend on people when they're in a crowded indoor space. Why people suddenly forget how to walk in straight lines, or even just watch where they're going is beyond me!

Anyway, I think if you had a whole lot of stuff you needed from a variety of stores, it's a great place to go shopping, but for the most part, I'll be sticking to the high roads.

Kristy recently pointed out to me a website which calls for people's opinions about overcrowding on overground rail routes. Having now been an overground commuter for a number of months, I felt I was in a good position to share my experiences with them.

Here's a copy of the e-mail I submitted.

I'm writing to you concerning the overcrowding on London trains, particularly during the morning rush hours, departing from Putney towards Waterloo. I'd like to tell you about my experience this morning, which I believe is reflective of a typical morning commute.

I arrived at the station around 8:07 AM to find that the train scheduled for that time had been delayed. When I arrived at the platform, I found it to be about 3 - 4 people thick as far as I could see. Not only did this give me the impression that I would not be able to board the next train, but it also left dangerously little space to walk along the platform without bumping into other passengers.

The train arrived around 8:09 AM, already quite crowded with passengers from previous stations, and sure enough, I didn't even come close to making it aboard that train. People at one end of the train were fighting with the doors to try and get in before they closed, which caused the train to be delayed even further. The train departed around 8:11 AM.

The next train arrived at 8:13 AM, thankfully with much more space available. Passengers piled in as soon as the doors opened, and the space was very quickly filled. Though most people waiting probably made it aboard, I've no doubt there were some that were not so fortunate. I counted 34 passengers crammed into the vestibule that I was standing in; this did NOT include the passengers standing along the aisles, let alone those crammed in the vestibule at the other end of the carriage. Needless to say, every seat in the carriage was occupied. I am sure that the other carriages in the train were equally crowded.

Suffice to say, commuting from Putney during peak hour is not a pleasant experience.

I look forward to your feedback on this matter.

Their reply (thus far at least) was a very generic:

Thank you for your interest. Your views will be considered in the investigation.

I'm not sure if my e-mail will have any effect, but if everybody thought that, then nothing would get done.

A few weeks ago, Aubain and Ingrid asked us to go on a "short country walk" with them today, provided the weather was ok. Things were not looking promising with heavy rain all day yesterday, but today turned out to be beautiful, so off to Otford we headed.

Sure, it was muddy - extremely so, in some cases, and our trousers and hiking boots came back looking very well loved. But it was also extremely beautiful out there; the autumn colours are in full bloom, and there was a rainbow of leaves on the ground everywhere we looked.

Probably the highlight for both Kristy and I was walking through a field of corn. It was just awesome! The way it moves in the breeze is transfixing; it seemed to be whispering to me, "if you build it, he will come". Stupid corn, that doesn't even make sense.

We ate lunch at The Fox and Hound's, a pub which was conveniently situated right around the half-way point. I had the lamb shanks, and thought of Mom.

We were so lucky to have such a beautiful day, and it really was a fantastic way to spend it, burning some calories and breathing some very fresh air. I'll be signing up for another one soon! Check out some more photos in the photo album.

As many of you know, last weekend I joined the 30 club. Being in London, we celebrated this momentous occasion in true English fashion - by spending the day at the pub.

We started fairly quietly, with about 10 - 12 people for lunch around 1 PM (I had the fish and chips, which is always good there). More and more people started showing up, more and more beers kept getting thrust into my hands, and before I knew it, it was 10 PM!

In the end, we had about 25 people come along to celebrate. There were a few surprises during the day, such as a big teddy-bear cake that Nick and Suzie snuck out to get for me, and the old man who bought me a beer in exchange for sitting at one of our tables. The biggest surprise of all was my present from the folks at work - I certainly hadn't expected anything from them (I was just happy that so many came out for a beer or two with me), but they turned up with a new pair of oakleys! Sweet!

The pub closed at 11:30 PM, which is precisely the time that we left. Even thought the day seemed to fly by, ten-and-a-half hours is a long time to be at a pub! It was extremely exhausting, but such an excellent day. A huge thanks to everyone that came along, and for all the very generous presents!

Check out the photos from the day, taken by Kristy and Shannon (I think!)

We took two-days off last Thursday and Friday (the astute among you will note that that means I had a one day work week), and headed to Bath. Though it's very accessible by rail, we didn't know precisely what time we wanted to come/go (you have to book specific times on the train), and the ticket booking was going to cost in the realm of £80 - £100 for the two of us; so instead, we hired a Nissan Micra and drove ourselves there.

Our first order of business (not including parking, finding our apartment, or eating, that is) was to join a free walking tour. It was great - our tour guide was a very enthusiastic lady who had an interesting voice and a lovely jacket. We learned all about the city's vibrant history, and saw almost the entire place on foot.

This here is Kristy, standing in front of Royal Crescent. The guy who designed this had quite the fascination in Masonic symbols, so he made this street to symbolise the crescent moon.

This one - called "The Circus" - is the symbol of the sun. It's actually a complete circle; this is just one quarter of it. According to our guide, Nick Cage owns one of the places in the middle. Wikipedia seemingly doesn't agree. Anyway, the tour ended up lasting for about two and a half hours - and it was all for free! It was a perfect introduction to the city.

Next on the agenda (not that we had an agenda; it's just what we did next) was the Twilight Package at Thermae Bath Spa. Thermae is the only natural thermal spa that operates in Bath (or in fact, in all of Britain). Their twilight package entitles you to three hours of lazing in the hot baths and saunas, as well as dinner and a drink in their restaurant. As you can probably guess, it was a very stressful experience, especially sitting in the spa on the roof watching the sun set. (Well, to be truthful, it was raining, so we were more just watching the light grow dimmer, but it was still great!) We left the baths feeling very relaxed indeed, and after sharing some wine and snacks at a local restaurant, we turned in for the night.

First thing Friday morning, we headed straight to the old Roman Baths to have a peek. They include an audio tour with the admission fee, and I was pleased to see that it was earphone-enabled, so I plugged in my buds and took plenty of photos. Good lord, is that audio tour boring! After about three stops I switched to the kids version, which not only contained the exact same information, but was far more entertaining due to all the comical voices.

The baths themselves on the other hand, are anything but boring! The Romans were just so darned clever - the engineering that went in to the place was magnificent! Actually it was pretty disgusting learning about how people lived back in the day; apparently, people never drank water, let alone took baths in it - once or twice a year was "more than enough". Eeeewwww!

It's no wonder they thought Bath was a mystical place of healing - it was really just that it cleaned all the disgusting toxins out of their skin! (And given that the ladies rubbed arsenic on their skin to make it look white, and that their lipstick was full of mercury, they would have been quite full of toxins!)

One clever doctor came up with the idea of getting people to drink the water as well as bathing in it (though not the same water, I presume) - and to this day you can go upstairs and have yourself a taste. And taste it we did - it's warm, and it has a distinctly metallic flavour. I think I'll stick to San Pellegrino for now.

We had covered most things that we wanted to do in Bath by this stage, so we stopped briefly for a fantastic brunch and coffee at a little café called Same Same but Different, and then headed back to the car for the uneventful drive back to London. Kristy fell asleep. I soldiered on. I'm such a trooper!

Kristy and I both had Tuesday off to spend with the Aussie gang as well. We decided that Windsor Castle sounded like a good option, so on to the train we hopped. We started a bit later than we had originally intended - but that meant we enjoyed huge savings with our Group Saver ticket (2 pay, 4 travel), plus combined castle entry - the whole day out ringing in at just over £15 a pop!

Windsor was cold! I was wearing a thermal shirt, a t-shirt, and a jumper, and was freezing in the wind! I found it difficult to believe that it had reached the full 13 degrees celsius that my iPhone was advertising.

An audio guide is included as a freebie with your admission fee, but it's one of those stupid ones you have to hold to your ear, instead of one you can plug your earphones in. I much prefer the earphone ones because (a) I always take earphones along just in case, so I don't have to use the shop ones, and (b) that means my hands are free to take photos.

Audio guide or no, we managed to arrive only a few moments before the last free walking tour was departing, so we hung around in the gift shop and waited for the guide - Art. We thought we had scored a tour all to ourselves, but at the last minute, a group of loud, incompetent ("How do I get the guide to play, Margie?"), and somewhat overweight ladies joined in as well. No prizes for guessing their country of origin.

Anyway - Art knew a thing or two about the castle, and it was great to get the information from someone first-hand. We learned a whole bunch of facts which I almost instantly forgot; but two things that I remember:

• One of the Kings decided the tower walls weren't high enough, so had them extended by an extra 10 metres. This caused the foundation to become unstable with the extra weight, so engineers had to re-seat the castle in the late 1990's.
• A man in a pink tutu and full beard managed to bypass security and gate-crash Prince William's 21st birthday.

Yes, fairly random. Truthfully I remember a whole lot of what he told us, but they're the ones I thought were most interesting :-).

After fairly thoroughly sussing the outside of the castle, we headed in to St George's Chapel. It had lots of interesting stuff in there - for example, we got to walk over the grave of King Henry VIII. The chapel also contains a display of a crown, shield, and flag for each member of the rather lamely named Order of the Garter. Though these were extremely interesting and very detailed, I still think that if you were founding an order of knights, you'd name it after something really cool, like, "The Defenders of the Dragon", or "The Conglomeration of the Panther"; naming a group after a garter sounds like you're just setting yourself up for a loss - it's no wonder England sucks at sport.

Our final stop on our tour was inside the castle itself. Unfortunately by this point we were running short on time, so we had to rush through the rooms quite quickly. (Oh, by the way, you're not allowed to take any photos inside any of the buildings.).

There were a number of stand-out rooms for me; namely, the very blue room for the Order of the Garter; St George's Hall, which contains the shield of all the previous members of the Order of the Garter; and the Waterloo chamber, containing a portrait of each of the main players that helped in bringing down Napoleon at The Battle of Waterloo; and all of whom were seemingly named "Lawrence". (I later learned that they were all painted by a guy named "Lawrence".)

Windsor castle made for a spectacular day out, and I'm glad that we finally made the trip out there to see it. Well worth a visit!