London in the spring

In case you were wondering if Lauren was the only one having a good time, over there in the US, I should say that its pretty darn wonderful here in London at the moment. It's funny, it's not until living in this part of the world that I really appreciated what a big difference the change in the seasons makes. New Zealand doesn't have the major shift from winter to spring that the UK does, particularly because it's closer to the equator and most of the trees are evergreens. Here it was dark at 4pm back in December, but is now light until 8pm. All the trees that were grey skeletons a little while ago are now either covered in blossoms or emerging leaves. This weekend we could wear shorts and the parks were packed. It's amazing what a lift it gives to people. Sitting St James' Park yesterday, surrounded by groups of people chatting, laughing or reading, you could almost see the happiness radiating off everyone.

So here are a few reasons why spring is great.

1) Flowers! The daffodils are out everywhere and the flowerbeds are filled with colours.

Yes, I've put up two flower photos. It's true. I am a girl.

Perfect weather for football in Kensington Gardens.

Andrew Burge is in town!

OK, so my old uni flatmate, divemaster and traveller extraordinare Andrew visiting Europe actually has nothing to do with spring, but it was really cool catching up with him after a few years. Pity my photo in front of the Diplodocus in the awesome Natural History Museum was a lot less than awesome.

But despite it being so nice in London at the moment, I'm really, really looking forward to joining Lauren over in the States on Thursday. Yay!