For all dog (or cat) (or animal) lovers.

This is one of the best books I have read this year. If you love dogs, this is the perfect user manual. If you love animals, this book is for you too.

"A dog's love is the same as God's love. That's why 'dog' is 'god' spelt backwards." It cannot be more true.

Maybe I should get a few copies for my animal-loving friends for Christmas...

Vienna & London.

The Schonbrunn Palace. The weather was excellent that morning, which made all the difference. When we left after lunch, the sky was clouding up already.

The absolute highlight of my trip to Vienna - conker picking. Until then I didn't know what a conker was (horse chestnut, looks like a regular chestnut we see in HK, but you cannot eat it). Apparently children in UK collect them and turn them into a toy. Such is the privilege of kids in the west - they are so close to and comfortable with nature and what it offers; unlike most of the Hong Kong- (or city-) raised kids, who don't even know the feeling of walking barefoot on grass.

BB's highlight of his trip in Vienna - listening to a (free!) organ concert. I felt asleep half-way through.

A group of US tourists saw me giggling and taking photos of this statute. They immediately took out their cameras and did the same.

Natural History Museum in London. One of the less expensive (free entry!) activities in London. Everything else costs you an arm and a leg.

A giant spider, the current exhibition at Tate Modern.

Borough Market. It's not huge inside, but all stalls offer the freshest food in town - organic fruits, fish & chips, home-made everything (sausages and pies, cheese, chocolate truffles, olive oil, etc). We had a chorizo sandwich, a veggie burger, a sausage bun, a spicy cider and an apple juice. Very satisfying lunch.

The prize winning pork pie at Borough Market. I bought one and carried back home for my dad.

Running away from the credit crunch (or trying to...)

As our holiday draws to a close, here are some of our (in fact, these are written by BB) most memorable moments of our trip to London and Vienna:

1. picking newly hatched conkers for DB's first time (even more amazingly, in the gardens of the spectacular Schonbrunn Palace);
2. watching the horses train at Spanish Riding School (it's only now that we can appreciate the equestrian events at the Olympics);
3. eating weiner schnitzel at Figmuller where the schitzels are bigger than the plates themselves;
4. trekking round Vienna at night looking for an emergency chemist (for nurofen, not durex);
5. enjoying an organ concert at St Peters Church in Vienna;
6. celebrating Ian's wedding at Whitehall Place (one of the most lavish weddings we've been to in UK);
7. looking round the Natural History Museum in London (who said it's just for kids?);
8. lunching at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (the first and hopefully not the last time we will be eating in such an amazing restaurant);
9. taking in the aroma of a box of fresh white truffles (at RGR);
10. DB being in Rothko paradise, surrounded by his paintings at Tate Modern;
11. BB being in shoe shop hell, surrounded by shelves upon shelves of boots (in both Vienna and London);
12. savouring the mushroom cheese pancakes at the Hampstead Creperie;
13. using the shopping scanners at Waitrose;
14. standing outside Covent Garden tube station in the rush hour and pouring rain;
15. getting used to London transport again;
16. getting used to having a bath every night rather than a shower;
17. catching up with friends and family; and
18. wishing that the economic doom and gloom will have blown over by the time we come back.

Photos to follow when we are back in HK.