London, a stealth mission and a new guest star

Ladies and gentlemen,

We'd like to introduce you to the newest member of the Couchsitters' all-star cast, The Van Currently Known As Dakota Fanning (TVCKADF).

With less than two weeks until we left Lymington, and still no wheels, drastic action was taken. We kitted ourselves out in head-to-toe camo, blackened underneath our eyes and headed to London with one simple mission: buy a campervan.

TVCKADF belonged to a fiftyish Kiwi couple who had just taken her on a two-month journey around France and the UK. We met them in a carpark next to Wimbledon station to give TVCKADF a once over. She had everything we needed – bed, storage, fridge, cooker, grill, sink and dual batteries – but with a price tag of £2300 ($AUD4887), we weren't sure she was the one for us.

In stepped negotiator extraordinaire Craig O'Shannessy, who after quickly getting them down to £2000, realised that he could probably tighten the bartering screws a bit tighter and reduced our offer to £1750 ($3700), they tried to meet in the middle at £1900, but Craig stood his ground and Dakota was ours for over £500 less than the asking price.

After sorting our insurance, checking out sat navs and praying that we had made the right decision, the all-important name issue came to a head. A discussion over beer and pie at a pub ensued...

'I'll leave that one to Lisa,' said Craig.

'Hmm, I'll have to ponder,' I said.

'What?! You're gonna call it Dakota?' misheard our friend Karl.

'Yeah, I'm gonna call it Dakota Fanning,' I replied with the most sarcasm I could muster (which is a lot!).

And, of course, the name stuck.

And while we have nothing against the teeny little actress who has graced the silver screen in films such as Uptown Girls and War of the Worlds, and quite like the idea of saying 'bloody Dakota Fanning' whenever the van causes us strife, I'm sure you'll agree that if this van is gonna be guest-starring in this blog for the next three months – taking us through the likes of France, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, The Netherlands and Belgium – it needs a new name.

So, we want you to make like Oprah and have a 'lightbulb moment'. What should we call The Van Currently Known As Dakota Fanning? Leave your suggestion in the comments of this post, and if we pick your name, you'll receive a postcard from us somewhere in Europe, and, naturally, fame, glory and prestige.

Goodies from Down Under

While the 48 curries we've eaten since we arrived in England four months ago have more than tickled our tastebuds (and added to our waistlines!), nothing beats a little taste of home sweet home.

Just when I started dreaming of the day when I would once again bite into an Aussie Mars Bar (they taste different in the Motherland), in swoops my mega-cool, insanely-talented hero Julie (check out her amazing work here) with a care package filled with Aussie treats!

Contents

Red Rock Deli Chips
Sure, there is a wide variety of 'crisps' available in the UK, but Craig has been missing his weekly gorge on Red Rock Delis. He said eating them reminded him of Monday nights when we would do the shopping, come home and make something super easy for dinner and he would sit back with his weekly packet of Red Rocks (and eat them all in one go!).

Maggi Two-Minute Noodles in Chicken
After two years of saving for our travels, I became quite accustomed (ahem, addicted) to these cheap, nutritionally-lacking treats.

Mars Bars
My all-time favourite chocolate bar! It's not that the ones over here don't taste nice, they just aren't the same!

Eclipse Mints
There's plenty of chewing gum here (no thanks, it gives me headaches), Mentos, too, but what's a girl to do when she just wants a simple mint? Er, gets her friend to post her some I guess...

What, no Vegemite? How Un-Australian!

Nah, you can get it at the supermarket for £2! So we're still happy little Vegemites!

Extra, extra, read all about it Craig

Dishy boy has gone and done it again. First, his spate of hat-tricks had him hogging column inches, now his batting has landed him in the spotlight after scoring 61 off 18 balls in the Southern Electric Twenty 20 Cup on Sunday.

Here's what the Bournemouth Daily Echo (July 28, 2008) had to say about it:

Garden centre hit by explosive Craig
By Neil Perret

DEMOLITION man Craig O'Shannessy wrote the first chapter in the Southern Electric Twenty 20 Cup record books as Lymington gunned down arch rivals Bashley yesterday.

The Aussie ace plundered a breathtaking 15-ball half-century - the fastest in the competition so far - to help Lymington claim the New Forest bragging rights with a 16-run win at Bashley Road.
O'Shannessy laid the foundations for Lymington's passage into today's quarter-final draw after coming to the crease in the first over following the dismissal of Morgan Rushbrook.

And the Sydneysider immediately set about the Bashley attack, taking no prisoners as he bludgeoned the orange ball until it was metaphorically black and blue.

O'Shannessy also had visitors to the nearby Redcliffe Garden Centre running for cover after clubbing two towering sixes out of the ground and over the B3058.

He hit no fewer than 12 boundaries during his explosive stay before his luck finally ran out when he was caught by Andy Neal off the bowling of ex-Lymington man Mike West.

But having helped the visitors rack up 94 from fewer than seven overs, his exploits ultimately proved decisive with his 61 off 18 balls - including five sixes and sevens fours - paving the way for victory.

Although the rate dropped markedly following O'Shannessy's departure, Dave Griffiths (39) and skipper Adie Hunt (23) kept the scoreboard ticking over as Lymington closed on 183 for nine (Kevin Nash 3-31, West 2-43).

Bashley were always up against it and lost wickets at regular intervals - with Adam Darbyshire (4-30) ripping out their top order - before Neal and West joined forces with the score on 84 for seven.

They added 40 for the eighth wicket before man of the moment O'Shannessy (2-23) separated them after demolishing West's stumps with the first ball of his second spell.

Neal (28) and Nash (21) briefly threatened to pull off an unlikely run chase, although Bashley eventually came up well short on 167 for eight.

From couchsitters to, um... couchsitters

With Barcelona stealing the 'Where should we go next?' crown, we eagerly jumped on the newfangled World Wide Web and started hunting down some cheap flights. When we came across flights for a mere £29.99 each way with budget airline Ryanair, we were one giant leap closer to sipping sangria and chowing down on tapas in the Mediterranean sun.

When we clicked through to the booking page, our summer sojourn seemed to get a whole lot more expensive. Oops, said Ryanair. Did I forget to mention that you'll also have to pay about £70 each in taxes on those flights? Oh, and I'm not sure if you're planning on taking any luggage, but if you are, that'll be £24 each.

Budget airline, my ass!

Our backpacker-budget hip pockets couldn't handle over £300 ($620) in flights for a mere four-day break, so we waved to goodbye to Barcelona (for now...) and resumed our couchsitting...

Cricket update

Considering cricket is the main only reason we are currently livin' it English style in Lymington, we thought it was high time we posted an entry about how Craig's season is going.

While I have been playing the WAG game with impeccable precision — spending my days shopping, making media appearances and turning up to games in Dior sunglasses and toting Chanel handbags. Oh wait, that's Victoria Beckham. Silly me. Craig has become somewhat of a local cricket legend, hogging newspaper column inches and taking hat-tricks like they're going out of style!

With Lymington CC currently sitting pretty in second place on the table, it's safe to say the first half of the season has been an all-round success for the player known as Dish. Not only has Craig taken the first two hat-tricks of his career (one being on his 25th birthday, not a bad present!), he's also the top wicket taker in the league, with a whopping 21 wickets, and is placed 12th on the league's batting table with 183 runs after seven games.

With 10 games to go, there's still a whole lotta benchsitting to be done by me, and plenty more wickets to be taken and runs to be scored. Will Craig be able to maintain his form and help Lymington get promoted to the Gold League?

Watch this space...

Coming soon...

Cricket update

Find out how much cricket butt Craig has been kicking.


Camping out for Wimbledon tickets

We're taking our £20 Argos tent and braving the elements, all in the quest for centre-court tickets.

A day in the life of... Craig

Follow Dish around for the day.*

*Only if Lisa can twist his arm into writing a post.

State of Origin, Lymington style!

While State of Origin in Sydney usually involves either a) cramming onto public transport and making our way to ANZ Stadium (formerly Telstra Stadium), or b) eating take-away pizza from Sapori on the couch. This year, our experience has been a little, er, different.

Our first dilemma, where to watch it? While we have Sky TV where we are staying at the moment, we don't have Setanta, the subscription sports channel which shows stuff like rugby league, union and AFL. After ringing around numerous pubs in Lymington, trying to find one that was open at 11am and subscribed to Setanta, we finally hit the jackpot with the Borough Arms.

So there we were, sitting in an empty pub at 11am, drinking beer and cider and eating sausage rolls, watching the all-too-familiar Channel Nine coverage of this year's series. With no-one but the barmaid in sight, cheering and shouting was kept to a minimum. A few people straggled in towards full-time. One punter tried telling us all about how his friend goes for the Bulldogs, we feigned minimal interest until he left us alone.

Two-and-a-half pints and a crushing Queensland victory later, we were out the door. There was little time to celebrate, with Craig getting changed in the pub carpark and quickly making his way to Our Lady and St Joseph Primary School for an afternoon of bratty kids.

There was no media coverage, no watercooler talk and not a single guernsey in sight. Just a couple of Aussies in an empty English pub.

Hitting headlines with a hat-trick

Unedited extract from the Bournemouth Daily Echo
Monday May 19, 2008

Aussie Craig gives Hook a real Dishing
By Neil Perrett

AUSSIE import Craig O'Shannessy starred with bat and ball as Lymington kick-started their Division Two campaign with a tense two-wicket win over Hook and Newnham Basics.
The 24-year-old Sydneysider, who is nicknamed Dish, plundered five wickets in just nine balls - including an explosive hat-trick - to mop up the visitors' tail at the Sports Ground.
O'Shannessy's exploits (5-34), coupled with Christian Pain's three for 22, helped Lymington restrict Hook to 171 in a clash reduced to 44 overs per side due to a delayed start.
The same pair then contributed crucial middle order runs after Lymington had threatened to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Although Martin Hunt's intelligent 48 laid the foundations for a solid start to their reply, Keith Lovelock's nagging medium pacers began to cause a few anxious moments in the home camp.
But after the portly Hook man (4-21) had seen off Hunt, O'Shannessy (22) and Pain (30) temporarily steadied the ship before their respective demises ensured another uneasy period for the hosts.
However, a canny ninth-wicket partnership between Mark Newton and 15-year-old Tommy Barton eventually saw Lymington home in the gathering gloom.
Lymington captain Adie Hunt told the Daily Echo: "Craig always leads from the front with the ball and is very aggressive with it. He hits the deck hard and puts the opposition on the back foot.
"It makes such a difference to have somebody like him as the spearhead of the attack. He stopped them getting a bigger score and accounted for the two guys who had started to look dangerous."
The skipper also had words of praise for his elder brother Martin Hunt and hailed teenager Barton whose towering six over mid-wicket at the death proved vital.
Hunt added: "Martin batted very well. I put him at the top of the order to be aggressive and then we lost two early wickets so he had to curb his aggression and bat sensibly.
"For a 15-year-old, Tommy showed great judgement and maturity. He took his time and waited for the bad ball and, when he hit it, it stayed hit. It was a lusty blow at an important time.
"I was happy with the way we played; we just tend to make things more difficult than they need to be. But it was good to win and good to get off the mark."

Food, glorious food

It's no secret that we (especially Craig) share a love of all things edible — a delicious meal can send Craig into a three-hour rant on exactly how delicious the said meal was, while I think the fact that I have put on two kilograms in the past three weeks says it all!

In the planning stages of this trip, food was a big talking point — from pizza in Italy to giant schnitzels in Germany, we were ready and raring to consume it all! Unfortunately, England is not exactly known for its culinary delights, there are a lot of fried things, and all of them are served with baked beans (you can even get baked beans at KFC!). Nonetheless, we have managed to find a few redeeming morsels on the British eating scene (aside from Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay), that we would like to see back Down Under when we return... Are you listening Mr Rudd?

Indian curry
Curry has now overtaken the traditional fish'n'chips as England's 'national dish', so you'd assume with that much curry being eaten in this part of the world, it'd be pretty bloody good. We've consumed our fair share of currys, naan and papadums since we've arrived (see the new curry counter on the sidebar), and yes, it is pretty bloody good. We still have a soft spot for our local Indian Kitchen in Drummoyne, but with people from the Indian subcontinent accounting for two-thirds of immigrants in Britain, the Australian curry scene simply just can't compete!

Doritos Chilli Heatwave
If anyone knows chips (or crisps as they call them here), it's Craig, and with corn chips being his dominant vice, it's really saying something when he become obsessed with one particular flavour. A mix between Craig's favourite Aussie flavours, Sweet Chili and Mexicana, it's almost like these bad boys were made just for him — packed with flavour and a spicy punch.

Orange squash
Now don't get us wrong, we'll always be lovers of good ol' Cottee's (especially the raspberry and lime flavours), but right now, we're kinda diggin' what the Poms call squash, especially orange. While cordial is quite syrupy and sweet, squash is just that bit more fruitier (well it does contain 50% fruit juice, so go figure) — I personally put this down to the fact that actual fruit juice can be quite hard to find, there seems to be a lot of sickeningly-sweet crap that's 'from concentrate' around here.

Angel Slices
Angel Slices are such a fitting name for these delicious treats, as they really are morsels of heaven. If Chilli Heatwaves were made for Craig, I couldn't have come up with a more perfect treat for me than these soft, spongy delights if I tried. Let me run you through it: Two layers of melt-in-your-mouth sponge cake (one vanilla, one strawberry), with a thin layer of cream between the two for added moistness (sorry to all those 'moist' haters out there. Moist, moist, moist, moist, moist), covered in a sweet layer of icing, all in a snack-sized finger — though I usually just eat the whole pack of six in a binge-fest.

Pints
Why drink a schooner when you can have a pint? Trumping schooners by 143ml, downing a few pints can be quite deceptive, and will also have you running for the loos all night! While we are on the topic of beer, the options here are almost endless — bitters, ales, lagers — and Craig's got quite a task ahead of him to get through them all!

Cider
A refreshing alternative for non-beer drinkers (ahem, me), cider sure goes down a treat! Made from the fermented juice of apples (and sometimes pears), cider has an alcohol content of about 8.5% and tastes like, um, apple cider, with a hint of bitterness (think beer). Served with ice, we are told that it's a summer fave (the UK consumes the most cider per capita in the world), and I sure plan on downing a few myself this summer!

Waitrose egg sandwiches
Who knew a humble egg sandwich could become such an obsession? Thanks to the surprisingly-edible range of sandwiches available at the UK supermarkets (Waitrose, in particular), we have rediscovered the joy that is hard-boiled egg mixed with mayo and put between two pieces of bread. (Warning: side rant ahead) Though it's not just the supermarket sambos that rule over here, it's supermarkets in general, from the cheap-as-chips Tesco to upmarket Waitrose to the way-out-of-our-league Marks & Spencer, there's something here for everyone. I say screw the mediocre Coles/Woolworths monopoly, Australia needs some real choice when it comes to supermarkets, beyond that of IGA.

A day in the life of... Lisa

Tuesday May 6, 2008

7.23am - Wake up with an aching arm, the type of pain you get from exercising for the first time in yonks, though I haven't been exercising — this pain is Wii-induced. I've spent the whole weekend bowling, playing tennis, trampolining and hammer-throwing on the Hunt's new Nintendo Wii. Roll over and look at my clock, 7.23am — still at least two hours of sleep left in me. Swear myself off Wii for a few days and go back to sleep.

9.13am - Wake up and try to talk my body into getting out of bed.

9.32am - Finally manage to get out of bed. Make my way downstairs and make breakfast (Cornflakes and Vegemite on toast). Turn on the TV only to be met with some crappy English show called Sweet Sixteen. This can't be right, where is my usual morning dose of Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, The OC and Smallville (in that order)? Check TV guide, bloody Channel Four has changed the line-up. Settle for an episode of Top Gear on Sky instead.

9.52am - Put linen in the washing machine.

9.59am - Watch Grounded for Life while Craig hogs the internet, checking boring stuff like rugby league news — Darren Lockyer is injured again, or so I'm told. Craig leaves for a day of cricket coaching in the local schools.

10.24am - Shower and get dressed. Pick out a denim skirt. The weather is warm today, my first bare-legged day since we arrived, I thought the day would never come!

10.53am - Do a washing load of woolens.

11.05.am -Put fresh linen on the bed.

11.23am - Get on the net. Check Facebook (write Lucy half a massive Facebook email before accidently losing it, abandon mission), Hotmail (email a couple of newspapers about freelance subbing, life is getting a little too Desperate Housewife for my liking), Girl with a Satchel, 4 Inch Heels Only, Perez Hilton, search for camping options during Oktoberfest.

12.23pm - Phone home. Speak to Dad and Megan, catch up on all the Parkes goss.

12.38pm - Eat lunch (a cheese sandwich and a glass of 'squash', in Oz speak that's cordial), while stalking a few people on Facebook, get a reply email from the Southern Daily Echo about freelancing work, sounds promising.

1.19pm - Get lost while walking to library. Goosebumps on my legs indicate it's not quite as warm as I thought. Finally find the library, reserve Long Way Down (we just finished watching Long Way Round, was brilliant. Dad, you would like it) and The Alchemist. Spot The Lovely Bones on the shelf and grab it (been wanting to read it for ages), also nab a copy of The Rough Guide to England before making my way home via Waitrose. Grab some sausages and ingredients for potato bake.

2.42pm - Arrive home and start cooking the potato bake and sausages to reheat for tonight's dinner. Catch a few episodes of Two and a Half Men ('Men, men, men, men, manly men, men, men') while potato bake is baking. Craig comes home from work.

4pm - Go to the bank when the potato bake is finished. Because the Oz dollar is going so well at the moment, we are withdrawing money from our NAB accounts and putting it into our English HSBC one, so if and when the Aussie dollar drops, we'll have some pounds to fall back on.

4.16pm - Half watch TV while Craig investigates ticket prices and travel options for the British Open.

5.02pm - Watch TV. Can't remember what, was obviously exciting. Craig leaves for cricket training.

6.30pm - Watch two episodes of Hollyoaks while eating my sausages and potato bake. Pot bake coulda used a bit more cheese. Starting to get to know the characters and story lines a bit now, it's a pretty bad show — production-values, acting and storyline-wise — but when in Rome Lymington...

7.30pm - Catch an old episode of America's Next Top Model, before researching more Oktoberfest accommodation options while watching How to Look Good Naked. Stumble across http://www.the-tent.com/, looks like a good (economical) option.

8.27pm - Craig comes home. Sit with him while he eats his dinner and tell him about The Tent.

8.56pm - Go to bed and start reading The Lovely Bones.

10pm - Flick to Channel Four to watch the eagerly-anticipated (by me, anyway) Amy Winehouse: What Really Happened (I watched the Heather Mills one a few weeks ago and it was quite intriguing). Didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, went back to reading.

12.35am - Finally put The Lovely Bones down, I hate having to stop reading a book, especially a really good one!

Told ya there were horses on the field!

FYI, there won't be horses on the field every week, Craig was playing a friendly for another team (Ellingham or something?).

Cricket, curries and Craig's new Lymington love...

It's been way too long since our last post (nine days, in fact), but you see dear readers, we've been flat out! There's been sleeping-in to be done, old episodes of Friends to be watched and curries to be eaten... Yep, it's a hard-knock life down (or is that up?) here in Lymington!

Lymington (for all those who seem to have problems remembering it, think lamington with a 'y') is a yachting town in South England — population: 14,000 — and will be our home for the next 19 weeks while Craig fulfills his stint as the overseas 'professional' for Lymington Cricket Club. Read more about the town here.

We arrived last Tuesday and quickly set up shop at our new abode — staying with the Hunts (the cricket captain's parents, their 21-year-old daughter and their cat Hollie). We have our own room, kitted out with new furniture and our own TV and DVD player (which clearly have been getting way-too-much use), and Mr and Mrs H have been been extremely generous and welcoming.


It hasn't been all fun and games though. Craig toughed it out on Tuesday, completing his first full day of work in three weeks, cricket coaching in primary schools. A couple of the kids didn't quite believe he was Australian though, one because he didn't say, 'G'day, I'm Auustraaalian mate,' and the other because he couldn't believe Australians spoke English!

Craig also had his first New Forest-cricket experience on the weekend, which he described as 'interesting', which was the most complimentary word he could come up with considering the wicket was greener than Al Gore, wetter than an episode of You Can't Do That on Television, and there were horses (yes, horses!) on the field!

Overshadowing all of this, has been the plight of the Punto...

Punts, as I (Lisa) affectionately call it, is Craig's 1996 Fiat Punto, and our wheels for the next four months. The relationship started off well, we first met Punts on Thorpy's (a former Lymington player who owns a used-car dealership) lot in nearby Southampton, Craig instantly fell in love with his small, but endearingly-dodgy, new ride, and we were soon cruising the horse-and-donkey-filled roads (more about that later) of England. Less than 24 hours later, Craig and Punts had their first falling out when a warning light came up on the dashboard, Punts lost some serious power and did the car equivalent of 'letting one off' (er, in other words, it stunk).

Of course Craig was thrown into his usual unnecessary panic — 'Great, we're not going to have a car', 'What if we can't go trippin' [road tripping]?' — and Punts was only driven for essential trips to and from cricket training for the next two days. After two-and-a-bit days of non-stop worrying, we drove Punts back to Thorpy's (scary trip, that one), where we were immediately given the keys to a 1995 Ford Fiesta Sapphire (top of the line!). The relationship with the Fiesta didn't even get to first base — we weren't even with her long enough to give her an extremely-original nickname — as three hours later we received a phone call from Thorpy to say Punts was fixed and back in the game!


Once he was reunited with Punts, Craig was back on top of the world! We are now free to go trippin', and are planning on christening Punts with a trip to Bath in the very near future...

To be continued...