Scotland for Hogmanay

Hiya. Well, another letter to fill you in on what we've been up to since just before Christmas. We spent our Christmas up in Edinburgh with Mike's sister Vivienne, her husband John, and their wee boy, Benjamin (and their cat, Nuisance). We arrived in Edinburgh about 11:15pm Christmas Eve after catching the train from Kings Cross station at 6pm. Mike went straight from his work carrying our suitcase (which we found easier to transport presents in, as opposed to a pack which operates on the crushing technique to transport goods - which doesn't usually matter if you're backpacking - the disheveled look being all the rage with backpackers) and I went from home as my work had finished at 1pm after nibbles with the Managing Director.

We were both early for the train; I arrived at about 4:30pm, and Mike arrived about 4:35pm (this is for a 6pm train remember). We had heard rumours about the stations on Christmas Eve being really busy, so we wanted to avoid a huge rush. Six o'clock came along fast enough. The journey was good; people were in high spirits, and we had a few conversations with fellow passengers. I kept my eye out the window, looking for Christmas tree lights in people's windows. I wasn't disappointed either. Prodded Mike in the ribs each time I saw one too. Christmas is a great time of year. We weren't allowed a Christmas tree this year, as Mike argued we weren't going to be there.

We caught a taxi from Edinburgh station to John & Vivienne's house. I had only been there for about 10 minutes when Karen rang to say hello. We chatted for a brief few minutes until her pay phone ran out of money. Then about 5 minutes later Mum rang, and talked for so long that it was Christmas Day by the time she had stopped.

Mike & I went to bed soon after that. I made Mike wear his Christmas boxer shorts (they used to play Jingle Bells, but the battery went flat and for some reason Mike never wanted to replace it) and Santa hat to bed. I now have a photo of this giant pixie or elf in his bed! Bashful looking pixie too. But cute!

We got up fairly late by my Christmas Day standards - about 8:30am. The day itself was good; Benjamin had a ball opening fifty million presents. Vivienne cooked a fantastic Christmas dinner (she actually prepares a menu on her PC and prints it out - Christmas Day 1997 .... With starters, mains, desserts etc) and basically spent a major portion of the day in the kitchen.

The day after Boxing Day (Saturday) we caught up with our friends Mike & Karen and took them to see Edinburgh Castle. I found Charlie Robertson's name in the book again. The Stone of Destiny has now been returned to Edinburgh Castle, and that wasn't there the last time we visited. It is something that is greater in legend that in real life. But, what a legend. That is, if it is the real stone at all. We had a good day for wandering around the castle, but it was pretty cool nevertheless. Gusty up there.

On Sunday evening I went back on the train to London, but Mike stayed up in Edinburgh. He was so wonderful at the station. As the train started to move off, he kept up with it outside my window. Then he had to jog as the train sped up. Then he broke into a run, and was running down the platform next to my window. When the train started to pull away, he stopped and blew me a kiss. He made me feel quite special. An American woman behind me was going 'Oh, look at that. Isn't he sweet'. And he was. A wee cutie.

I was home by 11:30 that night and off to work in the morning. Work was a bit slow that week, being the festive season and all.

My work finished up at midday on Wednesday (New Years Eve) so I went home to tidy up before my train left at 5pm. I called home at 1:20pm our time, and it had just gone midnight in Melbourne. So, I talked briefly to Mum, Robert & Pat & Johnny.

The train journey was uneventful (and I was getting a bit bored by this time - especially as it was in the dark every time and you couldn't see any scenery at all) and I got into Waverley Station (Edinburgh's main station) at 9:15pm. The first person I saw was Blue (he's Kelly's boyfriend and they've just moved over to the UK - Blue is Irish but they'll look for work here in London). He tried to get me behind the police cordon (they had issued tickets for Princes Street this year to prevent crush injuries, so all the streets were blocked off and patrolled) but they wouldn't let me (none of us had managed to get tickets). So I told them I'd meet them near the exit.

As I toddled around looking for the exit (they only had one exit from the station to try and prevent gatecrashers) I asked a policeman the direction. Then, I crossed the road and bumped into Mike. He was very merry! He had been drinking since 4pm and as the pub they were in (him, Kelly and Blue) was closing at 8:30, they thought they had better drink enough to keep them going to midnight. Oh dear. Mike promptly fell on the ground, with his head in the gutter, looking up at me and giggling (this is still in the station and undercover). The policeman I had just asked directions from came over and told Mike to move along. Mike leapt to his feet and started spouting rubbish 'Yes, I was just coming to visit my wonderful girlfriend here at the station. Came over the cordon just to see her'. See, Mike didn't have a ticket, but he had been drinking in a pub within the cordon since before the cordon went up. So he had to come through the cordon to see me at the station, and now we couldn't get back in. Well, Mike promptly fell on the ground again (I was trying to pack my bag with his stuff that he said he wanted me to bring up from London but said he didn't need there and then), and the policeman came over again. I dragged Mike to his feet and we shuffled off to the exit.

At the exit we met up with Kelly and Blue. They were still on the Princes St side of the cordon, and we were talking to them over the barricade. We were chatting to a security guard for a while, trying to cajole him into letting us over the barrier, but he wouldn't. He was very nice - Mike took a photo of him with the rubber chicken.

Then we walked around to the cordon entrance, and Kelly was leaning over the security guard's shoulder from her side, and we were asking to be let in from our side. And then, wonders of wonders, the other security guard gave us all tickets to get in. Mike was so pleased he kissed her (but got the wrong woman - but she didn't mind). So, we all went in.

Then Mike and Kelly thought they'd do the haka for me & Blue. Very embarrassing, especially as Mike kept missing his knees when he struck them. Then we mingled with the crowd on Princes St. It wasn't too crowded and there was plenty happening. There were quite a few tents set up all over the place, and these had bands and the like. Texas was the big band that was playing. Mike wanted to stay after midnight, but I wanted to go home (we were looking at a one hour walk to get home and I didn't fancy staying out too late), although I wish we had stayed and listened a bit now.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way we lost Blue. We never found him either. So Kelly saw the New Year in without him. Bit of a shame. The crowd started the countdown at about 25 seconds to go, and then Mike & I had time for a quick kiss, then they let off the fireworks from the castle. It was great. Huge fireworks, and such a lovely backdrop. It was a clear night too. The fireworks started a wee fire under the castle walls.

Then Mike & I wandered home. After about 25 minutes of walking through the crowd, we dropped out the end of Princes St and started the walk home. Fortunately, after 15 mins, Mike flagged down a cab and we got home by about 1:15am. Pretty good night too. John & Vivienne were still up, but Mike wouldn't drink anymore. So we chatted for about an hour and crawled off to bed.

We went out on Friday to a park between Edinburgh and Glasgow with John, Vivienne and Benjamin. It was supposed to be to catch a glimpse of the native red squirrel, which has been dominated in most parts of the UK by the grey squirrel from North America. But, we only saw some ducks and pigs (hairy wee pigs too - must be highland pigs, related to the highland koo) and miniature Schnauzers (and Mike has decided I'm allowed to get this type of dog, if and when we get a dog).

It was freezing at the start of this walk. It was sleeting, and I scared Benjamin by being wrapped up like a wee bundle with only my eyes poking out. I had my gloves on, jeans and Docs, jersey, scarf, hat and parka with the hood done up too. The scarf was up around my nose. Hardly any skin showing at all. Benjamin wouldn't come near me till I pulled the scarf down.

After we got back to Edinburgh, Mike & I went out with Blue and Kelly for dinner and a drink. It was supposed to be an early night, but Mike was keen on drinking these Steinlagers he found at a pub, and Blue and Kelly were keen too. I had a good time too. There was an Aussie guy from Brisbane playing with a guitar on this stage where you had to climb on top of the juke box to haul yourself up onto the stage. Anyhow, we asked for a couple of requests (he didn't play any Bruce, but we got a Hunters song out of him) and we were a very noisy wee bunch in the back corner of this pub. I enjoyed myself, singing my head off to these oldies, but goodies, tunes. Especially Mull of Kintyre. I knew all the words to that one.

Well, I don't know why people drink. I mean, I had a great time at this pub, and I wasn't as sick as a wee puppy the next morning. But, someone was. He said it was because he smelled the cigarette smoke on his clothes the next morning, but, hey, I smelled it too, and I didn't go shouting at the toilet. No need in the world for alcohol; you only need a good atmosphere, good friends and good food.

We hired a cheap rental car on Saturday, and needless to say, I had to drive everywhere. We left Edinburgh at about 10:15am and got to Glasgow about 45mins later. The weather was awful. A huge storm was blowing in - hitting the west coast of Scotland. Of course, that was where we were heading. Apparently I was supposed to remember the way to Frankie's house, but I distinctly remember asking some people directions when we did that, so I had no idea of the way there. And, Mike & I had copied down Frankie's address wrong from one of his letters (have a look at his writing and you'll understand how we got that wrong) so we couldn't find it on our map of Glasgow (now we know why Frankie hadn't replied to our postcards and letters - he never received them). So, we wandered around Glasgow for about an hour (we wandered so far that at one stage, after we did a U-turn, we saw a sign welcoming us to Glasgow), until we ended up in the right suburb. Then we called Frankie, and found we were only two blocks away.

So, we picked up Frankie (said hello to Nellie and another daughter (not Patsy)) and hooned up to Lochgoilhead. Andrew was there visiting his grandmother so it was good to catch up with him. Actually, when I rang to make sure we could visit, he answered the phone. That threw me because I wasn't expecting a man to answer. I asked to speak to my Aunt Nancy, and he had no idea what I had said. I said 'Is Nancy Dickinson there?' and that did the trick. Quite funny.

As we sat there and chatted, a huge thunder storm blew in, and the lights flickered quite a bit. Obviously it hit a sub station further down the coast, as the lights went out completely. We were going to visit Margaret and Roy, but they were being flooded. And, as we left Aunt Nancy's place to go and eat at a local pub/restaurant/curling rink, we could see evidence of the storm, as there was seaweed all up over the road. It must have been swimming!

The restaurant was fun. They were having a big curling competition, and many outsiders had come in for the big match. But they couldn't get going, because every time they started up, the lights would go. Fortunately we got our meals ordered and cooked between bouts of darkness. We ate by candlelight. Very atmospheric.

We left Aunt Nancy's at about 8:30pm and dropped Frankie back off in Glasgow. Then we hurtled back to Edinburgh, driving through the sleet.

Next morning there was only time to clean up, then we were back on the train to London. We made this trip during daylight hours so we could see something of the scenery. Lovely coastline between Edinburgh and Berwick-on-Tweed. We left Edinburgh in the grip of a mini ice age (well, it felt like that) and apparently the snow lay around for a few days. Shame I missed it. I wanted to build a snowman.

Due to high winds (and a faulty freight train at Durham) we were delayed by nearly an hour getting into Kings Cross. We leapt on the tube to Liverpool St and caught a train to Bishop's Stortford to meet up with Kara and her family. She had flown over for Christmas with her family, and her Mum cooked us a great meal. We also found out that Kara was going skiing at Chamonix in March, so we booked a ski trip then too. So, we're off skiing in France from March 15-23.

We got home at about 1:30am. Tuckered out wee things. Work got us back into the swing of things.

Dave Holloway (John's younger brother) has been dossing with us since that Monday. He wants to work here in London for a while and is sorting out his life. He came over for the wedding, and stayed. He studied law and economics and has been out of varsity for a year or two. He should do well here in London.

We went to Cambridge at the weekend and visited a friend called Liz Hale. She was in Cambridge over the Christmas/New Year period visiting her father. Her father is a professor at Otago, but is on sabbatical here in Cambridge. We went into the Cambridge University Press and we found her father's book there. Liz is studying her PhD in English Lit at a Boston University. Mike flatted with her in Wellington for a while.

We had gorgeous weather in Cambridge. Unseasonal warm weather. Apparently it's confusing the hedgehogs. They think their hibernation is over. They're going to be cross in a few days when the bad weather kicks in. Cross, and stiff with the cold. The blossoms are out too. We'll send you a few photos of Cambridge when I get around to sending a snail mail to you all.

That's just about up-to-date now. The last few days I've been working from home and trying to get some administrative tasks done (like getting a National Insurance number, getting registered with a GP etc). These sorts of things take forever in this country. Getting a hair cut is a lot easier than getting a doctor's appointment. You can only go to a GP in your residential zone, and only if they are accepting new patients. And appointments? Well, I wouldn't want to be dying. I've been trying since Monday to get one, and I finally found a doctor that said they'd see me, and that's for Friday evening. I could have dies by then. I'm a bit worried about getting a referral to a specialist for my last melanoma checkup. I'll probably be on the waiting list for 5 years. We want to go to Bath this weekend. I intend to see parts of Britain before the tourist hordes descend on the country in May/June. I'd like to go to Lyme Regis, on the coast near Weymouth, as that is a huge fossil region of England. I want to see Liverpool too. And the Newcastle area. And York. And Stratford-on-Avon. Not to mention Ireland and Scotland. Then there's the weekend trips to The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden. All viable weekend options.

John & Judith's wedding day

It has dawned bright and cool. I can see the faint remnants of a fiery red sunrise out the window towards the east. Here's hoping it will be a gorgeous day. John rang last night and he sounded a wee bit nervous, but he says he's very happy. Judith is lovely. Since we've met her we've realised John has made a good decision. Up till then we were wondering how a month together then two years apart whilst engaged was going to go... But Judith is sensible, and they have lived together for 6 months now. I think they know what they're doing. They've got as much chance as anybody making this committment. And they look happy together.

Mike & Karen (Mum met them in Dunedin in Forth St - Mike is a PhD student in maths, and Karen is an accountant - Mum quizzed Mike on how he sees rubbish bins as volumes and curves - but he doesn't recall that - fortunately!) have arrived in London after touring Europe. Mike is John's best man. They stayed here in our flat from last Sunday, to yesterday morning. Then they had to be in Cranfield (Judith's parent's house) for wedding rehearsals last night. It's been really nice to catch up with them. They are still living in Hobart- they may have started calling tax certificates 'Group Certificates' (they are called IR12's in NZ), but they haven't started called duvets 'doonas' yet. They'll probabaly be there at least another year. Bit of a shame we didn't visit them while they lived there.

Last Friday I chopped my hair off. I was standing in the tube at the start of the week and thought 'That's it!. I went to a hairdresser's on Friday and wavered ever so slightly when she asked what I wanted (after 5 years of saying 'Just a trim, thanks' it was almost an automatic reflex) but said I wanted a change. So, I have a bob - jaw length... Of course, my hair insists on curling funny at the ends; I have to blow dry it to death to get it to stay vaguely respectable. I'll send a photo if I find a decent one.

We've booked our train tickets to Edinburgh for Christmas, then back here on Sunday night. Then, up again on Wednesday night (New Years) and back again on Sunday night. The English don't get the day after Hogmanay off at all. So, I've asked for a day off to join the Scots in celebrating the New Year. The train will get us to Edinburgh at 9pm on New Years Eve, so it had better not be late for the festivities!

First thoughts of London

Hiya. Winter is upon us here in ye olde London town. We received our first snowfall early this week. Chilly stuff. I said to Mike, "Is it raining?" as we were preparing for work Tuesday morning. He opened the window (as the condensation means we can't see through the window) and I stuck my head out. Something looked a bit different, and it dawned on me that the white stuff all over the cars and rooves was snow! Brrr... And set to get worse.

As far as my thoughts on living in the UK go, I still haven't been here long enough to really know what it's like. But, I have noticed some things. One of the amazing things to consider is that, genetically, I am now living in my perfect environment. I have only ever lived in places where Anglo-Saxon people are not native (Maoris in NZ, and Aborigines in Aus). But, when I look around at people here, they all look like me. They have my colouring, my genes, my language... My race is native to these climes. In a funny way, it is the reason why it is so home-like, I guess. The genetic prodigal daughter has returned. Of course, my heritage is Scots and not English... Don't worry, I'll never lose sight of that! But the genes didn't have political boundaries to keep them pure back when we crawled out of the caves, so my analogy does hold true to a certain extent.

Another thing I find myself doing differently is watching people. I've never been one to pay attention to people as I trot along. I think you become oblivious to people when you live in a large city like Melbourne; you sort of switch off when you wander around. But here, you can sit and look at people - and there are sooooo many people - and wonder what their lives are like. Their faces are miserable looking (for the most part, but not everybody is like that) and you just find yourself wondering where they live and what they do. And there are beggars everywhere, pickpockets, massive fraud... I'll be a hardened Londoner yet.

The tube system is diabolical. I use it every day and so far I think it's only been working adequately on 50% of occasions. Today I had to use the overland train to Watford. All trains running in and out of Euston were suspended due to a fire on a train at Wembley. One train was running, and fortunately it was going to Watford Junction, but it stopped at every station from Euston to Watford. Took 45 mins instead of the usual 20. But I got there in the end, although there were still delays when I returned at 1:30 to London. Then, when I was returning home on the tube, there was a station emergency at King's Cross and everybody had to evacuate the station. I had no idea how to get home otherwise, but by the time I had sorted out an alternative route, the station was cleared and I jumped on a tube home. Bit of a nightmare public transport day.

Our wee hoose is cute. It serves its purpose nicely. Although Mum will be disappointed to hear that we are up two flights of stairs. But less steep than at Connaught Terrace, and an internal set of stairs too. They smell a bit musty, but the flat is fine. We have central heating that comes on if the temperature falls below a certain level of comfort (I think Mike has it set to 20 degrees or something). So, it is warm, but not stifling like most places inside in London. They love the heat turned up here! We don't have a couch, but that's about all we need. But, that's not urgent. And if we're lucky, the landlord might buy one for the flat. You never know your luck.

We went to the rugby at Wembley last weekend. It was a great feeling, to be sitting there watching the All Blacks soundly beat Wales. The score was 42-7 but the All Blacks still aren't playing at their best. It'll be nice to see them get their act together against England this weekend. If they win this weekend (and looks likely) then they will have played their international matches this year unbeaten. An improvement over the single loss they suffered last season. Ohhh, it's nice to follow the All Blacks and be world beaters and ignore the NZ cricket team. Although they did well to save the last test against Australia. And they were a bit unlucky in the first test. Still, we wont mention the match against Victoria. Best not bring that up!

After the rugby match finished last Saturday, it took us 1 hour to walk the 200 yards (how ever far a yard is (??) - that's the distance I heard someone behind me say we'd covered. Haven't the Brits realised the rest of the sane world is metric?) to the tube station. It was just like a sheep pen (with lots of kiwis in the crowd there were the obligatory Baaaa sounds that all kiwi men seem obliged to utter when being herded) with people packed so tightly into the cordoned-off street that it was definitely a slow shuffle step to the station. We had a few happy kiwis doing hakas along the way too. It was good fun.

Finsbury Park and first London jobs

Looks like our travelling is at an end for the next six months or so – we’ve moved into a wee flat in Finsbury Park, and our stuff from NZ finally arrived after three months (er, did they really say six weeks when I sent it off in August?!)  Ah, was good really – it coincided almost exactly with our flat being available, so we had it delivered on the day after we took possession on the 18th of Nov.  Up til then, from when we arrived on the 7th of Oct, we’ve been camping in people’s houses – first with friends Richard Theresa at Muswell Hill, who I know from school and Uni, and have been living here for three years now.  But Richard’s sister and her boyfriend came down in late Oct – they’re travelling around the place working in pubs and stuff - so it was going to be 4 in the sofa-bed, so we moved to Simon's for a couple of weeks.  Simon’s bought himself a flat near Waterloo station that is very nice, and is leading a great lifestyle.  He’s getting sick of Treasury though and sounds like he’ll move on to, I dunno, whatever economist people move onto in the private sector.

The flat is quite nice – the area seems okay, there is only the occasional stabbing and mugging to contend with.  Nah, it isn’t exactly Highgate or Sloane Square, but then again it isn’t Brixton either.  Do you know the area?  Seems to be quite liveable to me.  The flat’s on the second floor of some terrace housing (or  ‘Coronation Street flats’, as they say in NZ) and is the same sort of deal as our Brooklyn flat only it’s half the size and you get a view of Arsenal Football Stadium instead of Wellington harbour.  (The stadium isn’t very close but you can see it!).  The landlord just redecorated the place before we moved in and they’ve done a very good job – the interior is very nice.  And, woo-hoo, it’s got a DECENT SHOWER – the first one we’ve found yet in Britain.  Full mains pressure hot water and a nozzle you stand under, instead of some dribbly thing you have to wave over yourself while sitting in a bath.  Lack of showers is probably the biggest mystery to me in the UK.

We’ve also both got jobs now – Angela’s been at hers a week and a half, and I start on Monday.  Things were a lot more quiet than we were expecting – I’m very glad we didn’t listen to all the streets-paved-with-gold optimists in NZ, and brought enough money to cover ourselves.  Basically there isn’t any contract work around at the moment, because everyone wants to work the winter, and no-one wants to offer jobs now because Xmas is smack in the middle of it all.  So about 3 weeks ago Angela started looking for permanent jobs instead (since she can, with her Scottish mum ‘n all) and there were LOADS!!  She was getting about 10 calls a day between when she put her name forward, and when she signed on the dotted line.  She’s working for a group called Spargo Consulting, who just send her out to do work at various client sites.  Me, I got a job YESTERDAY!!  Woo hoo!  I’ve got a 2 month contract with Andersen Consulting, upgrading an in-house system they’ve got to handle their logging of hours worked, to work with their new e-mail system.  Should be straightforward – a bit of money in the bank and then off snowboarding in February!

London - own flat, own computer, Paris trip

Hello from our new flat with our OWN COMPUTER!!!  Ah, at last.  Trouble is, there isn't any furniture in the lounge  so I'm sitting cross-legged with the keyboard in my lap.

The last couple of days have been quite frenetic what with moving in and all, and getting our freight delivered at last.  All arrived safe and sound in perfect nick, even better than I was expecting.  The only trouble is that yes, Britain indeed does have a slightly different broadcast standard - PAL/I instead of PAL./B, as a website I found described - which means  I can get picture but no sound.  All is not lost though... we just need another box to 'translate' the signal into audio and video output - which means we'll either have to pick up another VCR, or (sigh) subscribe to cable, what a shame.  (OR we could try and just buy a cheap TV, but that'd be cheating!)

We went to Paris for the last Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday ... had a ball.  Paris is a really beautiful city.  Amazing it's only 3 hours' train ride away!  We did all the obligatory touristy things - Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre (well the outside anyway... figured we didn't have enough time to go in), Musee Rodin etc.  And we also wandered around a lot and spent a lot of time eating really yummy food!!!  No wonder the Brits have such a bad culinary reputation having to compete with food like that.  We did the Catacombs tour - in the early 19th century, the cemeteries were all overflowing, so they dug up all the old bones and placed them in crypts.  You go down into these cellars and there are thousands of bones in 3.5 km of tunnels.  Creepy!  They were all arranged like a mosaic pattern, with lines of skulls, then femur ends, then arm bone ends, then skulls again...  We stayed in Montmatre, in a place Jennie recommended.  It was good - very run down but clean and comfortable, and cheap.  My French also got me by with surprising ease - and things got easier day by day, once I'd figured out the key phrases I needed 90 percent of the time.

While we were there we also went to see Alien 4, which has been released in France but not yet the UK (is it in NZ yet?) - in English with French subtitles.  It's very good - not as good as the first two though, but still worth seeing, and better than the third.  Ripley's back and she's REALLY mean this time!

Well that's about all for now - we get to watch the All Blacks thrash England this weekend (on Sky at a pub somewhere), then get to see them IN PERSON at WEMBLEY the weekend after.  Got my All Black jersey out...

London - 2 weeks in

We've been in London 2 weeks now and no, we don't either have jobs yet.  A little disconcerting.  We have enough money to last us okay, but the trouble is that no-one will lease you a flat unless you have a job and an employer reference to prove it.  That makes for a catch 22 - you can't look for a flat until you have a job, but once you have a job you can't visit any letting agents since they are only open office hours!!  Ah well, we have managed to secure a flat in Finsbury Park, but this is dependent on us getting work by the end of the month. I guess we just try bribing them with rent in advance if this doesn't happen.  Things are apparently 'quiet' in the contracting business at the moment - I've had my CV put forward to about 5 jobs, and had an interview yesterday (that I'm not holding my breath on, since they specifically require a specialist skill that I don't have), so things aren't entirely dead, but they're a long way off from the agencies ringing you up day and night with jobs that we were led to believe.  I'm glad we brought enough money to cover this - as a lot of people told us not to bother in NZ!! 

Aside from that things have been going pretty well.  It's good to stay with Richard and Theresa and catch up with them.  We're going to go skiing in France in March!  We've got to move on though at the end of the month since Richard's sister Teresa, and her boyfriend are arriving to stay from Edinburgh.  So we'll stay a week with another friend, Simon Hayley, who is a Brit. who was seconded to NZ for a year and we got to know there, and who is a high flying Treasury economist - well I guess he's high flying because he's just bought a flat right beside Waterloo station!!

Then, all things going to plan, we move into our flat on the 11th of Nov.

Another rosy picture we were painted when we left was that our freight would be waiting for us when we arrived in the UK.  Ha ha.  It's not going to be here until mid-November!!  In a way that's good cos we can have it delivered directly to our new flat, but it does mean we don't have a lot of the stuff we would like for job seeking - most awkwardly no computer!  That means we're paying tens of pounds for computer access (£6 an hour) at an Internet cafe, to prepare and e-mail CVs around, and £1 per page to fax CVs.  The worst is that we have to come into London for all this, so we lose time where we're out of touch of the agencies.  We tried to buy a mobile phone but of course you need a UK residential address where you've been continuously resident for three years (one might ask, if you stay put for that long, why would you ever want a mobile phone?!!)  We want one so that we have a single contact number - we've heard nightmares of people being offered jobs at a flat they left months ago (it’s happening to us now, Simon and Richard get all our calls!) - and so that when we're backpacking or something on the continent we're still contactable.  Plus they're really cheap here - £10 for the phone and 5p per minute!

We're going to travel around the next few weekends, to go see people and also to give Richard and Theresa some time in the flat by themselves!  This weekend we're off to Edinburgh to see Vivienne & John & Benjamin; then we're planning to go to Paris on the Eurostar.  Theresa has some cheap ticket vouchers from a trip she made where they were delayed in the chunnel for 40 mins.  We thought they'd be £25 return but it turns out they'll be £50 return instead when we tried to cash them in - ah well, we'll have a think about it but we'll probably still go... still a lot cheaper than the £100 return full 'economy' fare!  Then we'll go to Southampton to visit John.  Somewhere around this is the rugby at Wembley (NZ vs. Wales) and a big Guy Fawkes display at Alexander Palace, just up the road from Richard's flat.  Then there's Christmas and hogmanay at Edinburgh so we'll be busy people over the weekends for the rest of the year!!

London Job-hunting and Flat-hunting

Things are going well in London - we've been here nearly a week now and have (sort of) progressed on looking for jobs and flat.  We've put our CVs around a few agencies on Friday and have had fairly positive noises back. We also looked at some flats on Saturday - there wasn't *that* much around, and there were some fairly dodgy sounding letting agencies too - but we're only after a place for six months so we aren't really that fussy.  There were a couple we looked at from a fairly good sounding real estate agent that were old and dark but clean and not damp, and a good size, so failing anything great turning up tomorrow we may as well sign up for one.  Rent is dear here - even these flats are 95 quid a week, and you have to come up with 4 weeks bond plus 4 weeks rent in advance so there's a big layout first up...!  My friends Richard and Theresa are paying 160 quid a week for a flat similar to our Brooklyn one only a bit smaller, and quite a distance from the central city... so that gives you an idea!  Everything is dear here, even a beer will cost you NZD 10 or so...!  You just give up depressing yourself by converting the prices through after a while.

Oh yes, and our stuff won't be here til mid *November* now!  It didn't make the early ship that it was supposed to, and then the ship it's on is going to be late too!!  It's lucky that we bought a cheap suit each in Thailand, otherwise we'd be stuck for work clothes.  As it is we had to go out and buy things like nice shoes and a tie for me.  I'll have to wear one suit and two shirts until our stuff arrives!  And we don't get our computer til then either.  Ah, the Internet cafe will get a lot of money off us then! Grump grump grump.