Colvin's back across the pond

Well it's been another month since I've blogged, and as usual it's 'cause we've been crazy busy with visitors!

After Sonja & Sonjay were here, Brian then took off for two weeks to Australia for a conference. Quite a long flight for him - London to Singapore, then Singapore to Brisbane. He had a fantastic time though. Made great contacts (he's actually a physicist who enjoys the networking parts!) gave a well received talk, and even fit in time to feed the kangaroos and go snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. I was pretty jealous, and if we had though about it, maybe I could have even gone with. But we've been so busy with visitors, that I was more focused on hostess duties. :)

John and Marcy were back for a couple of weeks at the end of June. They arrived in Oxford, just after Brian had left, so unfortunately they didn't get to Briguy this trip. But we had fun in Oxford visiting the good 'ol standbys (Dew Drop Inn and Royal Oak pubs) and went on a day trip to a new place for them - Stratford Upon Avon, which is Shakespeare's birthplace. It was so nice for me to have family around with Brian gone for so long. Didn't really have much of a chance to miss him to be honest!

Then on Monday, Ma and Pa flew to Dublin, where they rented a car to drive around the Ireland for the week. I have to say I was very impressed, since they were driving on the left side of the road the whole time! I haven't even attempted that myself. Although it does help with an automatic car. But most cars here are manual. Sounds like they had a great time staying at little B&Bs along the way and visiting the local pubs. They found a new fondness for Guiness as well!

In the meantime, on Friday, I flew to Brussels to see Chazz and catch up with him. Brussels is a great city, and if nothing else, I am perfectly content sitting in the Grand Place enjoying a good many Belgium brews (Gouden Corolous being my fave)! Charlie and I had a good time that night, drinking and eating our way around the city and catching up.

Saturday, Mom and Dad flew in from Dublin, so we had the weekend all together. We went to Antwerp for the day and unfortunately it was raining pretty hard that day. But the evening was more of the same, so pretty fun. And Sunday we had lunch with Charlie's friends and to see their new baby. I had to take off Sunday night to get back to Oxford. The three of them were taking off to Vienna and then Salzberg for the Sound of Music tour - I was so jealous! You'll only understand if you're from the Moen clan!

I had to get back home, to meet up with Bri since he was just returning. And to also get our place ready for the next set of visitors - Grannies from Minnesota!