OK so its been a while.....

... but you would be quiet too while working through this haul of port.

So whats been happening?! Last I blogged we were off to the rugby world cup - I could say nothing more on that topic - but it was a great trip both to seeing couple of games and also spending time in Paris, London, Cardiff. A travel tip from that journey is don't believe British Rail (or First GW or whoever they are) that a ticket means anything - we paid 60 quid to stand in the bit between the carriages, shoulder to shoulder with everyone else, trying to hang on and hoping that the brakes would actually work at the end of the line. Plus we were told over the PA at every station "Move down the train please there's plenty of room for everyone". As you can see there really was heaps of room:

After that we had the pleasure of Bry's parents visiting us, which was really nice for them to experience our life here, and also to spend time as a family which we haven't really done for a while. We took them up to Lisbon and also to the Douro (more port!) and also made sure they got their fair share of pork, red wine and local-sized scotch. Following hot on their heels we had Rhino coming over, but also my bosses which mean the last few weeks have been a little chaotic juggling "entertaining", presenting and tour guiding as well as work itself and all on the back of some nights of mayhem!! It was awesome having Rhino here since it brought a little bit of the 209 crew to Portugal - so much here is about cruising from bar to bar, drinking and eating well, just as we do in Perth. Some overseas Lawley crawls were pioneered - one around Bairro Alto after the Springboks wine, the other last weekend in Seville.
So as you can tell the last couple of months have been a bit of a blur and it's hard to convey everthing I've seen in there. The most consistent memory I have is of autumn moving all over Europe, from the plane trees along The Mall in London dropping their brown leaves, the yellow browns in the countryside here, the red brown vines contrasting with yellow and orange trees in the Douro to the red-yellow chestnut trees in the Andalucian hill with families searching for chestnuts below.