A great day out in London....

We had a fantastic day out in London on Friday. It's one of the main things that I will definitely miss when eventually arrive back in Australia.

First of all we headed to Waterstone's in Oxford Street and get the latest Chuck Palahniuk novel, "Diary" signed by the great man himself. As you can imagine we were extremely excited about this and even tried to calm down enough to explain to the Italian guy outside who was handing out leaflets who had caused the huge queue that was snaking through the store and out into the street (the Banseys had done well by getting there 10 minutes early and being fifth in the queue). After saying it was Chuck Palahniuk, we got a blank look. After showing him his novel, we got an even blanker one. We then mentioned "Fight Club" and when we still didn't get any response, we gave up and decided to hit the road.

We then went to the Cycle Show. There was a lot of beautiful (and ridiculously expensive) bikes there to drool about. Quite an enjoyable afternoon seeing all the new bikes that are coming on to the market next year. Definite highlight of the show was seeing Banz do a one and a half kilometre time trial on a Tacx Virtual Reality Trainer. In jeans. Tucked into his socks. He did manage to break the current record (unfortunately there's a whole weekend of seasoned cyclists yet to try so its unlikely to stand for too long) and impressed the guy running the stand by doing it as a fixed wheel (only in one gear). I think this is because he didn't know how to change the gears (same as mine - Shimano 105s), but he says it was to show off how masculine he really is....

As you can imagine we were quite peckish by this stage and were fortunate enough to be able to track down a Wagamama's which is fast becoming our favourite chain restaurant around London. One Ebi Katsu and Chicken Kare Lomen for me, and a Duck Gyoza and a Chilli Chicken Men for Banz and we were on our way.

We managed to track down a cinema down the road showing one of our growing list of films that are out at the moment that we want to see (Matchstick Men, Belleville Rendevous, Cypher amongst others). This is probably the one we were most excited about - Spirited Away. This is a fantastic film fantasy that we would highly recommend.

All that and we got the train home in time to watch Sex and the City followed by Peep Show. All Fridays should be like this (apologies to those of you currently working....).

Silver Linings

Well we finally have some good news to share with everyone, though we're still not going to get carried away until we're signed sealed and delivered.

WE HAVE AN OFFER ON THE FLAT!!

I'll calm down a bit now... Anyway, Banz showed two lots of people around on Tuesday afternoon. The first guy really liked it and was saying about how much he likes the high ceilings, big rooms etc and was going to bring his wife back yesterday (Saturday) morning. After him, there was a couple who really didn't comment or say much about the flat and were very quiet. Anyway, Banz gets a phone call the next morning and the couple have made an offer which was only £1,000 less than the offer we had previously accepted. Of course we took it. When my Dad was selling Real Estate he used to phrase it as "biting their hand off", but we weren't quite that bad. Just salivating a bit.....

Again we're not getting ourselves too worked up after last time, but its definitely a step in the right direction. They brought round their Dad (not sure which one's, but a Dad nonetheless) and he was very positive about the flat also, so that should also remove that obstacle.... My Dad lost a few sales with parents coming round and stopping their children buying a house that they didn't think was quite right. So everyone, keep your fingers crossed and the Banseys may be finally able to leave London.