Bef on the road

Folks in London!

2007-07-24T20:39:00.000+01:00

My parents arrrived at 6am on Monday 25 June and yes, I met them at Heathrow airport so they weren't overwhelmed by the city! After taking them on a train then bus to my place, I left to go to work while they recovered from 3 days in very hot Singapore.

Saturday nite I took them to my cousin Phil's 30th birthday drinks. They were both impressed with the underground and oh so many people!

I also took them to one of my fav restaurants, a spanish tapas place where food is yum and so is the sangria!

After their 3 week trip, mum and dad were back in London for a few days. We tried to go to Buckingham Palace on the Saturday but it was raining too much to take good pictures, so we ended up at Harrods. I still hadn't been there so it was a good chance to go as well. The food hall was most impressive with all the fresh seafood everywhere and all sorts of meats and cheeses etc etc.

On Sunday I took them to a food and wine festival called Toast (http://www.toastfestivals.co.uk/). This is on ever year in London, the Saturday is NZ Toast, Sunday is Australian Toast. We went on Sunday as my friend organised the event and had some complimentary tickets. We were also joined by some family friends from NZ, the Parsons. Was a great day out in the sun, which has been lacking in London this year!

Pyjama Party!

2007-06-24T22:28:00.000+01:00

Going back to July last year, I went on an 8 day tour to Pamplona for running with the bulls.

Now this was a year ago but from that trip, I made some really good friends and regularly still go out all the time. Unfortunately tho, quite a few have already gone back to Australia or NZ so when we do get together, we party like it might be our last for awhile!

My friend Trish recently left to go back to Perth and decided she wanted a Pyjama Party. We're no strangers to dressing up so of course, thats what we did! The vodka jelly shots went down particularly well :)

It was also the first time that the 8 of us who went to Brussels at Easter Time were back together. What an occasion!

London Time

2007-06-17T21:57:00.000+01:00

Well this is the first chance I've had to sit down and write some more since being back in London from the end of May.

Every weekend seems to have something new on which is great, you never know quite what is going to come up!

I went the Sevens at Twickenham which was awesome, more so because NZ won the whole tournament! Which of course was followed by a very impressive haka :)

And to get into the spirit of it all, we dressed up in Airforce overalls complete with aviators. We were even being asked if we were actually in the airforce, yeah right!

There has also been numerous sessions at numerous pubs around London. Down by the Hammersmith river was a memorable day as it was one of the first days we thought we had coming of summer!

My friend Michelle had her 20th bday party a few weekends ago and thought that seeing as she was born in the 80's, that should be the theme. We all put the effort in and had a great time checking out all th bright colours and designs, some of which seems to be back in fashion again....

My friend Kate had her flatmates birthday party in London which I joined them at. Always great when people come to London! Ellen definately had a good time at her party, I hear she still had a hangover 3 days later.... oh dear!

More to come!! :)

Home for a visit!

2007-05-26T11:47:00.000+01:00

There's no place like home, oh how true that is!

The visa I went to the UK on was due to run out at the end of May 07 and I had been lucky enough for my work to sponsor me with a work permit. Now to get this work permit it meant I had to go back to NZ to get this from Wellington, what a shame!

So after arriving back from a week in Turkey at 10pm the Sunday nite, I flew home at midday on the Monday to arrive home at 10pm on Tuesday. I had tried to surprise my parents but asking my sister Kathryn to pick me up from the airport and I'd surprise them when I got home. But they were asking Kathryn all weekend when I'd be home so she gave in and they were at the airport as well. The surprise was on me!

I spent most of my time catching up with friends as well as doing a bit of shopping. I had been lucky enough to lease out my bedroom in London so had a bit of extra cash which was nice.

Two of my friends, Catherine and Amanda, were going away not long after I arrive to Europe but I managed to have a dinner with my school friends at Catherine's place before they left. Most of the girls didn't know I was home yet so the look on their faces was priceless when I opened the door to greet them!

I also surprised my friend Hannah at work, she came leaping out of the office when she saw me. I turned up on the doorsteps of Jorrizze and Lance's place, as well as Jerrold's. And I opened the door of Jerrold's place when Kim arrived. All their looks of surprise were priceless, definately glad I had decided not to tell them I was coming home!

May the 13th was also Mother's Day so it was lovely to be with Mum for the day. We had a family picnic in Cascade Park in the Waitakere Ranges, it had been a long time since the 5 of us had been on a picnic together! Went for a lovely bush walk as well, was great to see NZ forests again after so long, definately something I miss.

I also managed a few nits out in town, Danny Doulans one nite and Boogie Wonderland another nite. Great times!

I saw my boss from the National Bank and a few work colleagues, as well as my old workmates from Tech Pacific. Great to see so many familiar faces!

I had sent my passport to Wellington for the new visa and was awaiting its return. As soon as I got it, I flew to Sydney that afternoon to see my grandparents who were in Sydney the whole time I was in Auckland. It was a very quick trip but great to see them, as well as my aunts, uncles and cousins. It had been just over a year since I was last there when I visited them all on my way to London.

After arriving back in Auckland at midday on Thursday, I went home to pack for my flight back to London at 11.55pm. A few friends came over that evening for a little bit of a farewell which was lovely. And after about 26 hours of travelling, I was back in London!

It's been a bonus to go home when I did as I have no idea when I'll be going back again. There's still a lot of travelling I want to do before I eventually leave the UK for good, which could be in any number of years.

So here's to London and the summer ahead, as well as many more countries to visit!

Beer in Brussels!

2007-04-14T11:43:00.000+01:00

Next on the agenda was a trip to Brussels for Easter. My friend Trish had mentioned it about 2 months before Easter with another friend Fiona, so we booked a package with eurostar for 3 nites. Another friend Veeral happened to ask what I was doing and mentioned I was going to Brussels and all of a sudden, there was a group of 8 of us! Trish, Fiona, Brent, Veeral, Jaime, James, Andy and I. So off we went!

We meet at Waterloo Station where the Eurostar departs London from at 7am on Good Friday, very early start seeing as I'd gone to bed at 2am the nite before, after a workmates birthday drinks. 4 of us were quite keen to get some more sleep on the 2 hour Eurostar trip to Brussels but the other 4 were keen to start drinking! We were in 2 separate groups about 15 carriages apart due to booking at different times, so those of us that wanted to sleep could do so, and we did!

We arrived in Brussels about 10am and made our way to the hotel. We were also staying in 2 different hotels but Veeral had made sure they were within walking distance of each other, good job! What I didn't realise was that French is the main language in Brussels (followed closely by Flemish) so I felt a bit at ease when I realised I can cope with a little bit of French which would make the trip better!

Met up again and thought we should do some touristy things before too many drinks. We walked to some gardens and made our way to the Cathedral before finding the town square (called Grand Place) where there were lots of cafes, which in Europe, generally are bars as well. After the boys enjoying a stein of beer each, we wandered around the shopping area of the town.

Our first nite out was at a restaurant where we managed to score a free glass of beer each (thanks to Andy) and then a 3 course meal for 18 euro. In Europe they have what's called a set menu where you pay one price for 3 courses. The food was ok, we just made sure the alcohol kept coming!

We also went to a bar after where we had a metre of beer! Which we were confused about at first but is actually several glasses placed in a bracket that is a metre long... quite clever!
We were all quite tired at this point, seeing as we had been up since about 6am, so made our way back to our hotels.

On Saturday we decided to day a day trip to Brugge. First of all was our breakfast included in the price of the room. We weren't sure what to expect but we very happy to see if was a full cooked continental breakfast. Scrambled eggs went down a treat! So we were well and ready for the day.

We had all heard different things about Brugge so wanted to make sure we actually got there. The train ride was about an hour out of Brussels where we found ourselves in a qaint village. We wondered along the river and into the town and found a place to eat. Now what we the staff didn't tell us was that only 1 chef was on duty so our food would take at least an hour. Which I think we would've been happy to wait if they had've told us, but they didn't. So after asking where our food was, they apologised and offered us drinks on the house. Of course, we all chose the more expensive ones. Hehe.

After finally leaving the cafe, about 2.5 hours after going in, we came across a store selling lots of yummy Belgium beer which we all stocked up on and found a park to drink in, making the most of the last bit of sunshine. We also found a geniune Bruge/Belgium bar where the boys learned how to play a slightly different version of pool with the locals. Was amusing to watch the game!

We finally made it back to the train station and headed back into Brussels. Only after missing the first available train because the boys desparately wanted more beer and the beer machine wasn't working properly so they took longer than expected! Fortunately the next train was only 30 minutes later.

We decided to try have a nite out in Brussels so went back to our respective hotels to get ready. Unfortunately Brent and I had a snooze which probably wasn't the best idea! I ended up staying at the hotel which Brent, Trish and Fi went to see the others. Turns out they were all too tired in the end as well and went to bed as well.

Sunday morning meant a sleep in, after making sure we made it in time for breakfast by 10am. Back to bed for more of a snooze, before Trish, Fiona, Brent and I made our way to the Hiltion, where the others were staying. We had a yummy lunch at the Brussels Grill as well as Long Island Ice Teas. Was a lovely afternoon in the sun!

When Andy and James had arrived, they had been upgraded to the delux twin room which for us meant the perfect party room! We started going through all the beer we had bought in Brugge trying the different ones. Before we knew it, it was time for dinner so we wandered to town again and ended up finally at a Chinese restaurant about 11.30pm! We weren't sure if they were about to close when we arrived but with 8 mouths to feed, I think they were happy for us to come in. After a rather loud meal, us girls were also given a present, a nice little jewellery box. Very sweet of them.

Easter Monday was an early start to make sure we had breakfast before checkout at 11am. We took a hop-on hop-off bus around Brussels although didn't have enough time to go around the whole trip. We did get to see the main feature of Brussels which is a little statue of a boy and also went back to Grand Place to have waffles with strawberries, ice cream and chocolate sauce, oh it tasted so good!

Our Eurostar back to London was at 5pm. When we turned up at the train station, it was packed! But we were all looking forward to a relaxing ride back to London.

Yay for long weekends! I would recommend Brussels for about 3 days if any of you are heading over that way :)

Uniform Party!!

2007-04-02T11:46:00.000+01:00

My friend Sarah had a joint bday party with a uniform theme, was amazing to see all the variations everyone came up with!

I originally planned on going as a school girl, even though we had already dressed up for school disco previoiusly but thought I should check the shops just in case something else came up.

I went to Woolworths (similar to K-Mart in NZ) and found some kids policemen uniforms and decided they were for me! I decided my flatmate Helen and I should wear them so bought 2 of them hoping she would be ok with the idea!

Fortunately the kids policeman outfits were adaptable so we were able to modify to suit us and away we went! We had both had a rather large nite the nite before so we happy to start the nite a bit later than usual.

We took a cab with others out to Brentford to a bar called the Fire Station and were impressed by all the other outfits! Nurses, priests and nuns to name a few! Was a lot of fun dressing up and dancing the nite away!

More photos here!
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2092316838

Dublin for St Pats Day!

2007-03-21T18:04:00.000Z

Here's some photos from Dublin, I'll write about it soon (I hope!!)

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2092376828

Some pics!

2007-02-06T20:10:00.000Z

Ok so I haven't uploaded pics for a long time so here we go!

Here's pics of when I went to France to see Pearl in Annecy and Chamonix:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2095798568

Here's some pics from when it snowed one Wednesday morning. My flatmates and I were all up taking photos!
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2095797777

More soon!! xoxo

Waitangi Day Pub Crawl

2007-02-06T19:39:00.000Z

I was told this day was going to be huge and it was.

My day started at 7.30am on Sat 3 Feb (I didn't go out Friday nite as I'd been out every other nite. My flatmates had tho so took awhile to wake up) when 2 of my flatmates, Dan and Shaun, and I went to breakfast at Paddington where we met 2 of their mates, Chris and Blinkey. Breakfast was an essential start to the day, I had been warned.

About 9.30am we wandered down to the first pub and were part of the first 20 people arrive. Now knowing that last year there were 8,000 people (yes you read correctly, eight thousand) I knew the crowd would soon grow. And it did.

The idea is to go from Paddington to Westminster using the Circle Line tube (its one of the underground tube routes here) getting off at every stop, having a drink at the nearest pub and moving on around. You want to get to Westminster by 4pm for the haka which is performed by the guys. Now for logistal reasons, its not possible for all of us (8,000 remember) to all be in one pub at the same time so most of us bought drinks along the way from off-licenses, which is the equivalent to dairies back home, except they also sell alcohol. This made the day relatively cheap as well. So imagine, 8,000 (quite possibly more) jolly (drunken) kiwi's walking the streets of London making our way to Parliament square. What a day!

People were dressed up in all sorts of outfits, there were blow up sheep everywhere, NZ flags being worn as caps, general mayhem.

The best (and proudest) moment of the day was when the 2 guys I'd had breakfast with (my flatmates mates) raised the NZ flag outside one of the flash hotels along the route, which meant taking day whichever flag was flying (didn't see which one it was). The staff at the hotel weren't too bothered by all this, as us kiwi's have a good reputation of being nice drunks, as opposed to English football hooligans, of which I've seen plenty. Not only were we all proud of seeing our flag flying in London, but we all burst into the National Anthem. Trying to get NZers to sing our anthem at big sporting events is normally a mission, however being over here, away from home, but with so many other kiwi's, I was proud to hear we all new the words and were quite happily belting them out (in tune or not, it didn't matter!)

We all finally made it to Westminster where apparently the haka was performed. I could see the arms doing the actions but it was way too packed to get anywhere near where it was being performed. My flatmate Dan said it was a whole lot more organised last year, quite possibly because there were less people to organise. Who knows.

The day didn't end there of course. Off to a pub (the first one I'd been into all day!) for a few hours of dancing then made my way home. Flatmate Dan was home by himself so was pleased for a drinking buddy when I got home, flatmate Shaun fell through the door an hour or so later.

If you're ever in London around Waitangi Day, this day is a must.

Will try send through some pics when I can.

Here's a link to my friend Andrea's pics:
http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/ShareLandingReg.jsp?Uc=ax3tkah1.50r58c0l&Uy=-foqtlg&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=314514696134_218459494133

Just click on View Slideshow. And excuse the drunken ones, its to be expected!!

:)

Its 2007 already!

2007-01-29T20:34:00.000Z

Well hello there!

I know its been a very long time since I've written on here but its been crazy, have barely had time to myself!

Just a quick update, I went to Edinburgh in Scotland for new years for 4 days which was awesome. Was meant to be going to this massive street party but it got cancelled because it was so windy which was a shame. Was there with about 10 mates so we still had a great time.

2 weekends ago I went to France (again!) and met up with my friend Pearl there. I'd seen her in July in Paris so was very cool to see another familiar face again within 6 months. We did the typical french thing and drank lots of champagne (the real stuff!) and ate lots of cheese, so good! But I seriously ate enough cheese to last me the next 6 months. I flew into Geneva and we stayed in Annecy and Chamonix, very cool places! And saw lots of snow on the mountains altho not as much as there should've been for this time of year.

And speaking of snow, it snowed here last Wednesday morning! I heard my flatmate up early so went to see him and he said quick, look outside! And our backyard looked lovely all covered in snow! I've taken a few photos which I'll put on here at some stage. Unfortunately it was melting by the time I left for work (8.30) but was still enough around to take photos. Spot the tourist!!

It was Australia Day on Friday which we thought was a good excuse to go to the pub, well any excuse is good! There's a local pub my workmates and I go to most Fridays. I'm already a regular but thats all good!

With it beign Waitangi day next week, we have a few celebrations here on Saturday. It's a massive pub crawl which all the kiwi's do, last year there was 8,000 of us! Yes eight thousand! Starts about 10am and everyone eventually meets at Westminster where all the guys do the haka, I cant wait! We take over London for the day!!

Have a look here: http://www.waitangidaylondon.com/

Work is going great, really loving what I do, working for an oil company. And the people I work with are fun so it makes the days go pretty quickly! If I leave the office before 6.30pm, its been a good day :)

I've been trying to catch on emails, thanks so much to those of you who have emailed me! I've found I've been better at calling people on landlines (even at work, hehe) so if you want a random call sometime, let me know your landline and I'll try my best to figure out the time difference before I call! NZ is 13 hours ahead if thats any help (its 9pm here now, so its 10am in NZ now).

Hope you are all enjoying NZ! Looking forward to seeing those of you coming over this year soon! Including Mum and Dad :)

Hopefully talk to you soon!!!

Lots of London Love and Hugs!

Beth xoxo

* NEW ADDRESS *

2006-12-06T13:13:00.000Z

Here's my new postal address:

Flat 8
59-60 Belsize Park
NW3 4EH
London
UK

Feel free to send xmas cards, postcards from your travels, money......

My next post will be about the Wales GB Rally I went to last weekend in Cardiff, watch this space!!

Paris and THE ALL BLACKS!!!

2006-11-20T17:45:00.000Z

its monday afternoon here 5pm and already dark outside, oh how i wish i could still see the sun! i got back at 3am this morning from Paris after a tricky journey home from Paris. 24 of us went on a coach tour leaving on Sat morning at 6am, they like early starts around here! its a 2 hour drive to Dover where we take the ferry to Calais in France and altho it seemed wrong, we started our first drinks about 9am. the coach trip went quite fast and we were glad to arrive at our hotel about 5pm in the afternoon in time for a quick nap before the 9pm game. was very awesome being in a European city surrounded by very proud Kiwi's. I think I've mentioned before how I love telling people where I'm from and educating them about our country. we got to the game at Stade de France with over an hour to spare to made the most of it by having a few beers. eventually found block L where we were sitting (yes the stadium has blocks of A thru to Z, its massive!) and joined the other 80,000 fans - WHAT A SCENE!! loved walking into this massive stadium where the supporters were easily half Kiwi's, my new flatmate even happened to be sitting about 8 rows in front of me! great game, not as a convincing win as last weekends game, but still a win, looking great for the world cup next year! our hotel was quite a way our from the city so we were quite happy for an earlyish nite after the game.

next day we had breakfast at the hotel before driving to the Eiffel Tower and walking around for an hour and a half. we walked up to some big old building (then again, thats like every building I've seen over here!) and to the Arc d'Triomphe, that famous massive roundabout where they finish the Tour de France. we had to be back at the bus at 12.30 to leave so hurried back........
only to find the bus had broken down! the engine wasnt turning over at all, 3.5 hours later, we were finally on the road again! it did mean we had time to walk around more and see more of Paris which was brilliant. been there twice now and can quite easily go back! finally got on the road and made it back to the ferry. before we left the docks, the captain said the seas were quite rough so it would be a rocky trip, but we were busy playing games so didnt notice too much. and just when we thought we'd be nearly on land again, the captain told us another ship needed tugboat assistance and we'd be out on the water for at least another hour - it was about midnite by this time. not much you can really do so we just kept entertaining ourselves.

finally left the boat, changed to a new coach which was waiting for us and got back to London at 3am, up at 7.45 for work! not sure how I'm still awake but I made it through work.

even though I'm loving the travelling, I'm really looking forward to this weekend at home in London for a change.... and a sleep in!

the weekend after that I'm off to the British WRC rally with Josh, Craig, Katie, Michelle and Lawrence - bring it on!! and I thought I'd have a quiet life over here, hehe.

Moving flats and going to BERLIN!!

2006-11-13T17:42:00.000Z

our 6 month lease was up on our flat so Helen, Brad and I decided we'd move out. Brad already had a room sorted but Helen and I took a few weeks to find out rooms and all 3 of us now live apart, its very strange not living with them anymore! I found flat in a suburb called Swiss Cottage and have moved in with 3 kiwi boys from the Kapiti Coast. I havent spent much time at home yet but they seem alrite so far! turns out they know my friend Nick over here as well, typical small world!! my friend Leigh has a car and was generous enough to help Helen and I move all our gear (she is now in Fulham for those of you that know London, living with 3 aussie girls) to our 2 new places. was much easier that trying to take buses and the underground tube! as well as packing our rooms, we had to clean the flat as well, in order to get our bond back (6 weeks rent) so we spent a lot of time cleaning! we finally moved out on a thursday nite before going to Berlin at 6.20am on the friday morning.

Berlin in Germany is a great city to visit, highly recommend it! we were there until Sunday morning and I'm very keen to go back for at least another 3 days. one thing tho, it was extremely cold! gloves, woollen hats, scarfs and lots of jumpers and jackets were much appreciated! we did a bus tour around the city one day and the next day, made our own way around visiting the sights we wanted to have a closer look at. we visited part of the Berlin wall (the rest of course, has been knocked down), a museum called Charlie's checkpoint, a massive tour which we climbed up the stairwell of, visited a church which was half ruined by bombing in World War II, and found a cocktail bar that nite selling cocktails for 4 euro each (very cheap compared to London prices!!). Helen enjoyed the nite the most I think, it seemed like she was 2 drinks ahead of us!

Another new job!

2006-11-04T17:44:00.000Z

in between finding a flat and moving out of my old one (which I really miss!) i also started a new job. its with the same company as I was at before (Trafigura) as a finance assistant but I'm now working in the Swaps team, a 'proper' finance role at last! I work with 6 others checking documentation for the sale of oil, which of course is a massive industry. I'm not entirely sure how I got the job but I've obviously talked to the right people. I was at work one Thursday and asked if I would consider the role by my boss, spoke to my would-be manager not long after that and by the end of the day, I had the job and started the next day, woah!! Barely had time to blink! I was working in the Credit team, I was sitting with the Treasury team and now working in the Swaps team, so already know quite a few people! The other great thing about the job is they say they're going to sponsor me when my work visa runs out next May. I havent had much time to let that sink in but that mean I'll be over here for longer than I thought I would be, altho who knows what's around the corner.

it also means that for those of you thinking you 'might' come visit, you might wana make it a definate thing! the rugby world cup is on in France next year, and the America's Cup is in Spain, great reasons to be a Kiwi travelling over her then, and it will be summer time!! :)

The thing with London.....

2006-10-13T17:40:00.000+01:00

The thing with London is that people are always coming and going. I've had a lot of people arrive since I've been here but its only the last month or so that people have started to leave... I'm dreading when the time comes for my close friends to go home! The only good thing about someone leaving is their farewell party and I've had a few good ones so far.

Also had a few bday parties which has been fun, it becomes a game of 'lets see how many friends I have in London'! Hehe. My friend Wade asked if he could have his bday drinks at my place before going out to a club (The End) as he was still dossing (where you live when you first arrive) so we had about 40 of us around to my place one Saturday nite. Was great to meet more people, some even live on the same street as me!

My friend Nick's bday party was at his flat in Tooting (what a name!) which was a lovely afternoon which started with a bbq in the arvo drinking Magners (a very nice cider over here, I'm off beer at the moment!) and turned into a drunken dancing nite at the local pub where the Boy George show was on! There was about 20 us of us with Nick's party and and the others in the pub were all loving Boy George! We cheesily danced along to the music :)

Another great arrivel in London was my friend Benny, very cool to see him and show him around! He stayed with me for about 2 weeks and is currently still dossing with friends in another part of London. It worked out well him staying with me because I realised 3 days before he did, that both my flatmates Helen and Brad were going to be away and I'd be in the flat by myself! But Benny kept me company and I asked Nick and Jackie over for dinner. I probably would've been ok 1 nite in the flat by myself, but any more and I'd go crazy!!

Another trip to Norwich!

2006-10-09T17:39:00.000+01:00

I hadn't seen Kate in a few months so decided it was about time I made another trip to Norwich. My last trip invovled watching dvd's on a Sat nite because we were both quite tired but this time we planned on a big nite, and what a big nite it was! I took the 2pm train from London and arrived 2 hours later in Norwich. After a yummy dinner and some wine, we ventures out to be a pub where it was happy our and they served 2 cocktails for £4, a very good deal! So we had a few of those while chatting to some of Kate's friends. We then moved onto another bar to meet up with more of Kate's friends and from there went to the biggest club in Norwich.

Kate always says how small Norwich is but I was surprised by how many people were inside this club, it was huge!!! It was like everyone had decided to go out that nite, was crazy! We were rather jolly by this time and left about 1am (I think) to walk home (yes, walk home, Kate lives about 10mins from the city centre, perfect!). On the way I got kebab salad (they don't do the wrap things over here) and munched on that quite happily, chatting to randoms as we wondered home.

We paid for the amount of alcohol we drank the next day tho, we tried to walk around the town and do a bit of shopping but all I wanted to do was curl up in my bed, after the 2 hour train ride back to London!

Will be seeing Kate again on our trip to Paris to see the All Blacks, bring it on!

London Bierfest!!

2006-09-30T17:37:00.000+01:00

After being at my job for over a month, I was starting to be more social in the office and my co-workers involving me in the usual office banter. I had heard rumours of London Bierfest ( www.londonbierfest.com) but figured because I was temping and no-one had actualy said anything to me about it, I wasn't involved.

But the Thursday came along and about 3pm they said there were spare tickets and asked if I wanted to go.... as if I wouldn't!! So we all left work and went to a this pub they had done up to look like I imagine it would in Germany, a massive hall filled with big picnic tables and the german girls walking around with steins giving them out to the thirsty workers. I knew enough people to start a few conversations with and after an hour or so, they were all asking about me, some didnt realise I was from NZ, so there was a lot to talk about (Lord of the Rings, the All Blacks etc). And then the dancing started! We got kicked out of there about 10pm I think and all moved onto this other bar around the corner where there was more dancing. The tube (the train) has its last run about midnite so I made sure I left about 11.30pm and got the last tube home. I was rather jolly when I got home but was glad to see my flatmates still up so we could discuss our nites out.

So it was nice to finally have been out with the workmates and they realised I was just like them. Work the next was a bit hard but we were all hungover together so somehow made it through the day. Was glad I went home when I did because some of my workmates got home at 4am! I couldn't have done that and turned up to work!

Living in London

2006-09-28T17:38:00.000+01:00

I've tried to explore London's nite life as much as I can while being here, altho most of the big clubs charge £10-£20 (yes times that by 3 to get NZ dollars) just to get in the door, so I'm often happy with quiet nites at home every now and then with a bottle of wine and some good dvd's. I've recently been to The End twice for 2 different occasions and is somewhere I'd go again. Also found a nice club called Meet which has been great the few times I've been there! Meet is next door to Fabric, which is one of London's most famous clubs.

On Saturday 21 October I went to the Shepherds Bush Empire (about a 5min walk from my place) to see NZ dub group Solmonella Dub play with a group of friends. What we didnt know was that Concord Dawn were going to be playing after as well, what a bonus! Concord Dawn are one of NZ's best known drum n bass duo who I've seen several times and have reallly enjoyed recently. I'm sure the place would've been full with kiwi's and we all loved every second of it!

Heathrow Injection and partying

2006-09-17T16:14:00.000+01:00

Heathrow injection. That's what they call it. Everyone seems to come here and put on a few kilos without even realising it. Including me!!

Being the social people that we are, we soon learn about the pub culture in Englad which basically means it doesn't matter what day of the week it is, it's fine to have a drink anytime!!

Last Monday for instane, my cousin Philip arrived from NZ and I went out to meet him at the Australisian pub called the Walkabout. So here I was dancing to dance music at 10pm on a Monday nite, I'm sure that's not right! So I went home. And I blame Philip entirely :) He's currently partying at the beerfest in Germany, lucky thing! I unfortunately didn't have enough to go as well and have been getting texts from people all weekend saying how good it is! And that they wish I was there, that's nice to hear :)

About a month ago, 4 more friends arrived in London. Michelle and Rowan (who I use to work with at my first job out of uni, Tech Pacific) and Robyn and Wade. I use to go out with them in Auckland so its great seeing them here! The first nite I saw them, I took them drinking at a moored boat along the Thames (next to the one I had lunch on with my Aunty Teresa) because I had another friend Jon here for a few days who had organised drinks there. I also invited quite a few other friends along and it turned into a rather jolly Thursday nite! I somehow got home and remembered to set my alarm for work the next day, phew!

I also went with Michelle and co to South West Four which was a massive outdoor dance party starting at midday. A nice way to spend the afternoon on a long weekend! Here's a pic of Robyn, Alain, Michelle and I are the event, was a great day! I had about 5 other groups of friends there as well and managed to see them all. We didnt want the day to end!!

There was also the Nottinghill Festival a few weekends ago, that was amazing! It last for 2 days and each float has about 200 people involved. Either they are on the float, or behind the float all dancing away in there amazingly decorated costumes, NZ just doesn't have anything like that!!!

I've also been to the Ministry of Sound nightclub as well. Went along with my friends Leigh and Glenn and had a ball. DJ's Kid Kreme and Junior Jack were playing. Seen them in NZ but was cool seeing them here on their home territory!

Last Saturday was a fun day, had 3 bday parties to go to! Helen and I trekked across London for my friend Veerals bday which involved homemade cocktails, yum! Then we trekked back in time for one of our dossers, Brendan, birthday dinners at this nice little italian restaurant, then it was across to a South African bar called Zulu bar for my friend Stu's bday drinks. What a nite! But was great seeing so many friends all in one day :)

I've also had a reunion of the trip to Spain. We all went to the Church one Sunday and had a good old reminise about being in Spain. We just all wished we could go back there! That has definately been a highlight of my travels so far!

4 jobs in 7 weeks!!

2006-09-17T16:12:00.000+01:00

I have finally landed a 3 month job but in the time since I last had one, it had been about 4 weeks, so I am rather happy now I've got this one!

After going to Paris, I spent a good week or 2 getting in contact with all my agencies to see what work they had available for me. Because I had been lucky in getting a job after arriving in London after 3 weeks, I had only signed up with a few. But now I've signed up with about 7 of them and had to go for interviews with each one, which was rather tiring. But I'm quite good at telling my life story now :)

I am really trying to get a banking job (I worked at the National Bank of NZ back home) so am being a little bit picky about what jobs they put me forward for. Admin/receptionist jobs seem quite easy to come by and I finally took one at a law firm answering phones using a computerised switchboard. Now this was certainly not a huge career move but it was just for a week and was quite fun! I left that job to go to another law firm called Denton Wilde Sapte where I was a database assistant. I was pretty much updating their database when employees made changes in their contacts online. And also helping out with a huge mailout because they were changing their name. I learnt a lot from this job while I was there for a month but once again this wasn't a career move so took another job.

The next one was at Merrill Lynch which is a huge global investment bank, awesome to have on my cv. This was also a role updating a database and was fun again. I worked with some other cool temps and we got on real well. I was going to stay at this job for a month but another agency put me forward for a finance assistant position at a commodities trading company, which is where I currently am.

I haven't had that many great job offers but on the Tues and Wed of that week, I was offered 3 jobs, so I could actually choose! Agencies over here want the sale from you as well so help you every step of the way. I was lucky enough to be able to bargain my pay up as well, just because this other position was offering me more. I chose this one because it was a finance role, which I hadn't had yet, it's closer to home, it was more pay, and it's a 3 month position, which is nice security!!

The company is called Trafigura (www.trafigura.com) and I've heard that a lot of people came from banks like Merrill Lynch so its promising. I have so far done a lot of filing but I'm hoping there's more 'real' work next week!!!

Three other perks which I found about when I started are: unlimited coke, diet coke, orange juice, apple juice and orangina, its casual day every friday so I can wear jeans and jandels and I work with 2 computer screens, side-by-side. Not sure why I have 2 screens but everyone else does, and its quite fun dragging things from one screen to another (sorry if that doesn't make sense to some of you!!).

So I'll be in this position until the end of 3 months and then who knows from there. I'm hoping a position will arise out of this somehow but I won't know until later. But it feels like a step in the right direction :)

Visit from Aunty Teresa

2006-08-12T16:13:00.000+01:00

My Aunty Teresa was over here at the beginning of August and it was really great to see her! She was staying in Marble Arch which isn't far from where I live and we were able to spend a few days together. The first day we went for lunch on a boat on the Thames River. It's a boat permanently moored along the banks and it was quite surreal being there, actually in london with Teresa. Sometimes I still cant believe I'm here, even tho I arrived over 5 months ago!! We went for a walk along the Thames as well and ended up at Puckingham palace.

I also met up with her and Patricia after work one day to go on the London Eye, the massive ferris wheel on the Thames. I hadn't been on there yet so was great to finally go! My flatmate Helen and friend Jackie also came so it was a good girly nite out! The picture is of Teresa and I at the very top of the London Eye looking out over West London. I live far away in the distance.....

As you would've heard, the chaos caused at heathrow airport caused many disruptions, including Tereaa and her groups flight out of london, who were meant to fly out that day! Long story short, Teresa ended up staying 2 more nites in london, which was a nice bonus! She met me at the station closest to my place the friday nite and Helen and I took her to this little italian restaurant we have become regulars at. They do great woodfired pizza, highly recommended! I also showed Teresa my flat so she can confirm i am living well :) Was great to show her where i'm living in london, she took photos for my parents :)

Here's a link to some pictures of Teresa's visit:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2102455582

And here's a lovely picture of me, friend Jackie and flatmate Helen on our way to take the tube home after going up the London Eye with Teresa. That's Big Ben in the background and Westminister, the parliament buildings.

Lounging around London

2006-08-01T13:38:00.000+01:00

Since Paris, I've been half-heartedly looking for a job. I say half-heartedly because its been gorgeous weather here and the last thing I want to do is spend it inside an internet cafe! But reality does kick in when the bank account starts screaming "stop taking money out and not putting any in!!!!"
So I currently have a temp job for a week at a law firm answering phones on a switchboard. Its a nice change from my previous job but I will be looking for a banking position when this job ends.
Last week I had 5 interviews at different banking and finance recruitment agencies. Seeing as its the summer holidays at the moment, there seems to be a lot of work which is great, altho I am looking for a long term role so I have some stability. I've been seeing more and more of London which is great going to interviews all over the city. Altho taking the tube in this hot weather is not pleasant, like sardines in a can, everyone smells bad!!
In other news, my flatmate Kim goes home today, oh no! I stayed with him when I first got here and he pretty much showed me how to live in London, so it will be strange not having him here anymore! My friend Helen (from Auckland) has moved into the flat and I think Brad is coping being the only male there now. We're not that bad! I must also thank Kim for a few of his friends I've adopted, you know who you are!
And there has been the usual socialising. Have had a few girls nites at the flat the last few Friday nites which has been fun, bottles of wine, vodka and lots of chocolate and ice cream, perfect!
Saturday morning at 11am I was at the Walkabout pub (Australiasian pub I've mentioned) to proudly watch the All Blacks show those Wallabies how to play Rugby, go Dan Carter! Great being somewhere where everyone is so passionate about a game. Hearing the haka was awesome, I'm very proud of being a Kiwi and am even more patriotic about it now that I'm away from home.
Have also had 2 reunions of the trip to Spain, we just wana keep on partying! There's another one in a few weeks, no doubt there will be more stories. And we're all keen on going to Beerfest in September in Germany so thats on the plans as well. Along with Amsterdam and Barcelona and Italy and Greece and the list just keeps on going.....

Here are some photos from around London in July. Mainly just from my birthday and when I played tourist with Josh, a friend from NZ who was visiting here for a week.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2103972594

Paris - Oh La La!

2006-07-21T13:20:00.000+01:00

After taking a few days to recover from the chaos in Pamplona, my friend Pearl emailed to say she was in Paris and asked if I wanted to go see her there. Seeing as I had no work commitments, why not!
I went to AUT with Pearl back in 2000 when she first arrived in NZ from France to study there. We’d always said she can take me to Paris sometime, so it finally happened! I took the Eurostar on Saturday across the channel which meant a nice cruisy 2 and a half hours on a high speed train. Much easier than flying, just took the tube from my place to Waterloo Station, checked in and went through customs in about 15mins, waited 10mins for the gates to open and we could board, easy as, I highly recommend it!
Pearl met me at the station and took me to this cute little hotel she had found for us. We were in the Saint-Michel area which was quite touristy but I love playing tourist! We even had a little balcony which had a view of the Eiffel Tower to the left and a view of Notre Dame to the right, I still couldn’t believe I was actually in Paris! So we dropped my bag off and went to explore Paris. We walked to where the pyramids of the Louvre are and admired all the old buildings (I laugh when I think of how much history NZ doesn’t have) that have been there for centuries. Pearl wanted to go somewhere fancy for dinner so after some recommendations, we ended up at this very nice restaurant a short metro ride away, sitting under a little archway on the footpaths of Paris listening to all the various languages around me. It was great having Pearl with me to translate everything! Altho I did study French at school so I’m able to read most items on a menu and have a very basic conversation with the French (which was a lot more advanced after a few drinks!). I had a very yummy piece of salmon that was so fresh, it just melted your mouth, just what I felt like!
We decided to have a French breakfast the next day and go to Chateau du Versailles, highly recommended if you’re over that way. I woke up at what I thought was 9am but when we were ready to leave, I realised it must’ve been 8am we woke up, pretty early on a Sunday! We went to Notre Dame where there was only about 50 other people wandering around, so it was nice to have a bit of quiet in Paris. Went to a nice little café and had croissants, a coffee, orange juice and cake type thing and then found a train to go out to Versailles which is about 40mins out of Paris. Of course being a Sunday, the rest of Paris had decided to go there as well! But because I love being a tourist, I didn’t mind although Pearl wasn’t like the queues at all! And it was about 35C as well so staying in the shade was the key! Chateau du Versailles is the castle where King lived with his family, the castle is huge! We did a walking tour through it for about 2 hours and I know I missed some rooms. And then we went down the gardens which were absolutely amazing. Definitely scenes from old-time movies where people would have lavish parties surrounded by these massive gardens and amazing waterfalls. There are about 20 different water falls and back in the day when the King would walk around, the servants would have to turn on each one as the King walked to it. Nice work! The pictures don’t do it justice. They were also playing music so we felt like we were actually in a movie! We finished the day watching a massive water works display, sort of impressive, but apparently the show at night is better with the fireworks as well.
We headed back to Paris and went for dinner at the touristy place, full of restaurants with all the waiters trying to say they were the best around etc etc. They have what they call menu’s over there where you can get an entrée, main meal and dessert for varying prices. Of course, you get what you paid for so it wasn’t always a good idea! That nite we met a Canadian who was in Europe on business. Our tables were next to each other and we started talking about our travels and it turned out he’d been to Versailles that day as well. Being Canadian, he spoke French as well, and I managed to understand about every fifth word so was sort of able to keep up with the conversation.
Pearl was going to visit her parents in Togo when we left Paris so she spent Monday morning at the embassy trying to sort that out. I played tourist again and walked around taking more photos and going to the tourist shops to see if I wanted anything. We finally met again sometime after lunch and went to the Louvre – which is massive! We only saw a portion of it but spent a good few hours there, will have to see the rest on my next trip there (late Sept with Mum, yippee!).
We found out about another area of Paris where we were recommended we go for dinner and went to a rest called Chez Papa which was one of the highlights of Paris, great food! And funny staff which made the nite fun.
We had spent 3 days walking everywhere around Paris and were both quite exhausted from the heat, up to 40 degrees one day. I’m sure I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow every nite.
Tuesday we woke up to yet another brilliant day and met Pearls’ friends Andrew and Emma at Sacre Coeur. They’re both also kiwi’s and Andrew’s band (Batucada Sound Machine, highly recommended if you get the chance to see them live!) are touring around some of the music festivals in the UK so decided to spend a week in Paris too. We went on a boat cruise along the Seine, which was lovely to see Paris by the water, and went to the Eiffel Tower, which is amazing to actually see for real. After nearly dying in the heat again, we went to Luxemburg park and lay down on the grass for awhile enjoy gelato ice creams… hmmm….. and I kind’ve had a nap as well.
Pearl has some friends living in Paris so we were able to stay with them our last nite there. And because we loved the restaurant so much from the nite before, the 6 of us went there again.
My train was leaving at 4pm so we still had Wednesday morning to go out so we went to Musee D’Orsay with Andrew and Emma to look at yet more art. I’ve discovered I like paintings with water in them, whether it be a picture of a lake or river or waterfall. I’m sure I was a fish in my last life.
After lunch out with Pearls friends, I took the Eurostar back to London, my home for nearly 4 months.

Reality was going to hit me after spending the last 4 weekends in 3 different European countries. But that’s why I’ve come over here, to see as much of Europe as I can!

Running with the Bulls!! The Day!

2006-07-20T15:27:00.000+01:00

So after all the build up with the Opening Ceremony, Friday was the actual day of Running with the Bulls came upon us. There were a couple of girls from our bus who were running and most of the guys were, including my flatmate Brad. Everyone was trying to be positive about it, there hadnt been a death since 1995 so that was good odds.... (altho heavy on the brain!). Us girls parted with our boys once we got into the town again and headed to the arena. We paid 10euro to go and it was once again, an awesome atmosphere! You could tell that some of the Spanish people had been up all nite, and why not when its a natiional holiday!! There was a band playing in the centre of the arena and obviously played some well-known Spanish tunes because they would suddenly break into song.
Then a canon went off.... there are 3 canons. The first one means the gates have been opened, the second one means the first bull has come out and the third one means the first bull is in the arena. When that first canon went off, my heart stopped again for a bit, I was freaking out for all the guys I knew running, knowing there was nothing I could do but sit there and wait until I could see they were all safe! Amazing to see though, the first crowd of runners coming into the arena and quickly going to the side, looking behind them to make sure there wasn't a bull right behind them. 6 bulls are let loose first, then another 6 smaller ones. Either way, I wouldn't want to be chased by any of them! Once all 6 had run through the arena, safely out the back and locked up, they let out 2 little bulls to run around the arena. The brave guys would try and annoy them to get them fired up, but I dont see the point! Most of the guys I knew had jumped the side by this time which was good to hear, altho I didnt know this at the time, because it hard to spot people you know when everyone is wearing white clothes and red bandanas!! Traditionally, you aren't meant to touch the bulls but some stupid guys were teasing them really badly and when they did, the crowd would boo at them. Dont mess with tradition! One guy was so bad at it, the police had to escort him out of the arena so the Spanish guys wouldn't beat him up!! What an idiot!!
After meeting up with all the guys after the run, we went back to camp to rest for a bit before going back into town for a bit more of a party. Great watching the Spanish enjoy their music, they all knew the dances, like a town square dance! I stayed in Pamplona with my new friend Sonia and we managed to meet some Italians who wanted us to do the limbo with some rope they had (who carried rope with them?) and ended up in this cute little Spanish bar trying to speak with some Spanish guys who also knew some english. Sonia is orginally from Portugal and with the little Spanish I knew, we had a good combintation to figure out what they were saying. Our buses went back to camp every 2 hours so we made our way back there eventually and went to the nite club at camp, it was like being in a club anywhere else, cept the trees were the roof and it was just really really hot!!! It was out last nite at camp so most of us stayed at the club til it closed about 5am. And as we got back to our tents, the tour leaders were waking up those who wanted to do the Running with the Bulls again, so we all helped too! We knew they would take awhile to get ready so not much point trying to sleep while others are just getting up. Someone got hold of some toilet paper and all of a sudden, the tree around us was covered in toilet paper! Just like a christmas tree! Well sort of... hehe.
So I went to bed for a few hours sleep but when I woke up, I realised it was way too hot in the tent, slowly emerged and found out it was going to be about 40 degrees. This was our first day we could actually spend at camp doing nothing which is what we did... so needed it! We left around 6pm for the journey back to London, which fortunately went to plan, altho we all wished we could've taken a plane!
Everyone seemed to sleep pretty on the bus and by the time we arrived back in London about 6pm, we were all keen to keep on partying. So we did! Went to this bar not far from where I live (after ducking home for a quick shower, really needed one!) and partied the rest of the nite. It was like we didnt want the tour to come to an end, it was a really awesome bunch of people to be with for 8 days!!
Fortunately the tour group realises the people on tour often become close and have already organised 2 reunions. The first one is this Sat, will be great sharing all the photos with everyone! I'll put my other photos from my digital camera up sometime next week.
I still need to find a job, I just came back from Paris so my bank account is hating me even more! But will write about that in another post :)

Running with the Bulls!! Buildup...

2006-07-20T14:46:00.000+01:00

Hola amigos!!
Since my last post I've been to Spain and France, I love living so close to Europe!!
I went on a tour with my flatmate Brad with http://www.backpacker.co.uk/pamplona8day.htm and had an absolute blast! One again, met many Kiwi's, Australians and South Africans and we all drank way too much, but the memories are fantastic.....
Running with the Bulls is an old tradition held in Pamplona, San Fermin, Spain each year where bulls are let out at one end of the town and chased into the arena, with thousands of mostly guys running with them but ensuring they were out of the bulls way. Most of the guys on my coach did it and a couple of girls, but I was quite happy to watch.
We left London at 1.30pm on a Sunday arvo with what we thought would be a 20 hour coach ride to look forward too... or not as it turned out. Everyone was really friendly on the bus so we were all walking around it (well the best you can on a coach) meeting each other, finding out where everyone was from, figuring out who the clowns were going to be and who had the cold beers. Our tour leader was called Party Pete and that pretty much sums up how the whole 8 days was. 2 hours out of London, we came to Dover where we took the car ferry over to Calais, France. The bar on board was well apprciated for some cold ones before the rest of the trip! Off the boat into France we make our first stop at a service station. I had studied French in school and could still remember how to read a menu so this came in handy. It was then announced that our bus was having some technical difficulty and we would have to wait for a mechanic. About 2 hours later one finally shows up to inform us the coach is not road worth at all. So Party Pete puts in another call for another bus and tells us it will be with us somewhere between 2 and 10 hours - oh my god!!!! We eventually ran out of alcohol and as it was midnight at this point and there were a lot of drunk antipodeans running around a French car park, the tour had no choice but to put us up in hotels for the nite, much better than trying to sleep on a coach! And that was the most sleep we got for the rest of the trip. Our new coach finally arrived about 3pm the next day, we should've arrived in Pamplona at about midday so we were a tad late! We were still in good spirits and Party Pete made sure we were looked after so after driving through France most of the day, we finally made it to Spain and arrived at camp at 4.30am on Monday. I had slept a bit on the coach which was probably a good idea as we had to get up at 7.30am! It was Party Pete's job to wake us up in the morning and we were grumbled our way of bed to get breakfast and then hop on the coach again to take the 2 hour ride to San Sebastian beach. We were all over the coach at this time but at least it was only 2 hours!
San Sebastian reminded me on Bondi Beach in Sydney the way it curves around with cafes and apartments around the top of it, very pretty. And it turned out to be quite overcast which was a shame but we all enjoyed relaxing on the beach.
Back to camp that nite for our first nite with the rest of the tour. There was a total of 1600 of us staying at this campground and fortunately, all the tents were set up for us when we arrived so we just had to store our stuff there. There was a full on nite club as well, some of the best dance music I've heard in awhile! And a great ice-breaker to get to know everyone a bit better. We were bus number 5 and everyone knew our story of how our trip had instead taken 51 hours, so were sympathetic as thats a long time! But we all bonded really well which was great.
On Wed, we were taken into Pamplona itself for a tour of the town. We did a walking tour with a friendly spaniard now living in London called Luis and got our bearings of where the bulls would be running from and where too. It was nice once again just to relax under the sun with a few beers, the next day was going to be a full on one!! As the next day was going to be a massive party (and the Spanish can be sneaky) we had been advised not to take anything valuable with us, just some cash but no digital cameras, mobiles, etc etc. So I bought a disposable camera with 40 shots on it, brilliant idea! I've included some of them on here.
Thursday was the day of the Opening Ceremony, what a day!! We were woken up about 5.30am so that we could get into town in time to be in front of the town hall for the official opening at 10am. This involved buying bottles of bubbles for 3euro ($6NZ) which was meant to be used for spraying around but being the drinkers that we are, we were all drinking them as well! Everyone was dressed in white shirts and pants to stick with tradition and by the end of the day we were all pink from the sangria sprayed around as well, as you can see in the photos!! I tried dodging all the champange and sangria being sprayed around but after awhile, who cares!! So much fun! And the Spanish were great at the chants, I became very good at singing ole, ole, ole, ole, oleeeee, oleee (those of you know who know that one, will now have that stuck in your head!). There was also mustard, ketchup and shaving cream going around, we all stunk something riduculous after being in the sun all day, but at least we were together! After the official opening, we wandered up to a place called Muscle Bar which is this crazy concept Australians and Kiwi's have thought of. There's this big statue you can climb up, about 7 metres high and them make sure there's a crowd down below ready to catch you when you jump off like doing a bungee. Crazy. We were advised not to do it and there was no way I was gona be anywhere near it! I watched from the back and my heart stopped for a few seconds when I saw a guy up there from our bus but he was fine after it. Stupid boy tho.
After this it was up to the White Horse pub which is a massive outdoor bar and was our meeting place for everone, brilliant! By this time we'd all had a few bottles of 3euro bubbles so were quite merry. Spent the rest of the day wandering around the town and I even had a snooze in a square on the grass, I think there were a few of us that needed a siesta by this time!

Here's a link to the photos I took on a disposable camera:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2103974057

Running with the Bulls in the next one.....

First trip to Europe! Lisbon in Portugal :)

2006-06-27T12:24:00.000+01:00

Where do I start! My first trip to Europe and its made me want to go back for more!

My friend Vanushi (Nushi) is on the International Board of Amnesty International which unfortuantely means she has to travel to different parts of the world several times a year and this time happened to be Lisbon. She asked if Kate and I would like to meet her there and well, why not! So the trip started about 11.30pm Friday nite when Kate arrived from a 2 hour train trip from where she lives in Norwich. Flatmates Kim, Brad and I met her at the Sheperds Bush station and Kim was only too happy to carry Kate's bag. We'd been at the Walkabout and had consumed a few beers so it made the walk home rather easy :)

We finally got to bed about 1.15am but I had to set my alarm for 2.45am in order for us to take 2 buses and a train to get to the Gatwick Airport. Neither of us were happy when the alarm went off and somehow set off from my house at 3.15am on our journey. The first bus was alrite but the second bus arrived about 15mins later than I expected and by the time we got to Victoria Train station, we had missed the train by literally 30 seconds! Next one was half an hour away and we started stressing we might miss the flight and poor Nushi would be at Lisbon Airport wondering where we were!! We managed to book in ok and had a slight break in the shopping area and then realised our gate was a 20min walk away. You know how in the movies they run through the crowd saying sorry, excuse me, coming through.... well that was us! Ducking in between all these people! Kate even took her shoes off, my trust jandels seemed to handle it though. We got to the gate and there about another 10 people to board, good thing we did run! But we don't plan on doing that again.

We finally landed in Lisbon and waited around the baggage claim area for Nushi, very cool seeing her after a few months! We took the bus into the centre of town and after being given conflicting directions we finally found out hotel, about 10meteres from where the bus had dropped us off! For 15 euro a nite, we had a nice little room that was opposite one of the main squares.

We spent the rest of the day wondering around the city, admiring the buildings and paved streets. We found this cafe for lunch where the waitress realised we were relatively new to the city so gave us a few pointers, like not to leave valuable stuff showing at all because pickpockets were everywhere! After finally finding a minimart to get some water, we decided we needed a siesta about 5pm. I woke up at one point and realised it was getting dark, looked at the time to see it was 10pm! We all had barely slept the nite before so I guess a nap was well needed. Woke the others up and we went to this nite club called Lux, which Kate had found in the Lonely Planet, big ups to the Lonely Planet for our accommodation too! We ended up meeting an english guy of all people, typical to go away from London and actually meet some british people! He gave us some tips on what to do while in Lisbon, seeing as were we only there for a few days.

After finally leaving the hotel around midday on Sunday, we bought tickets for the hop-on/hop-off buses that goes around Lisbon. This went around the outskirts of the main city and all 3 of us were snap happy, taking at every opportunity! We visited a big castle, drove under a massive archway and saw the outside of a bull fighting ring. Unfortunately the bull fighting was only on Thursdays so we didnt get to see that.

After finishing the tour, we decided we wanted a nice porteguese dinner. We walked around the backstreets for awhile and came across this little restaurant that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere! But it was playing the soccer World Cup game between Portugal and the Netherlands. We saw the first goal being scored there and after eating decided to go down to the waterfront to watch the rest of the game there. What a crowd! Its like the viaduct back home but every restaurant had a massive tv screen outside and there were hundreds of people watching. Awesome being in such an enthusiastic crowd! I recorded the Portugese reaction when they won the game, people running around everywhere with their massive flags, singing their country songs, very cool being there! We ordered more jugs of sangria and danced the nite away, they played a mix of english dance songs and portuguese.

Monday morning we went on a Walking Tour of Lisbon (www.insidelisbon.com/EN/en_passeios_lisbon_walk) which was awesome. It covered right in the centre of Lisbon for 4 hours and we met travellers from the States and England. We passed a restaurant that is one of the original places to make periperi chicken, the chicken sold at Nando's restaurants, so we decided to go there for lunch. Was very tasty and a jug of sangria went down nicely!

There were also all these cows around the city, not real ones, painted in all these different styles, this one is my fave:

Our little trip had suddenly come to an end, so Kate and I packed our bags and went back to the airport. Vanushi is still there with her conference, no doubt she's had more sangria!

Speaking of sangria, I'm going to Spain next week for Running with the Bulls in Pamplona! I'm going with my flatmate Brad and some of his friends, going to be a crazy week! This is the tour I'm doing: http://www.backpacker.co.uk/pamplona8day.htm cant wait! Will be many more photos to put up after that week.

Here are all my photos from Lisbon:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2104793638

And in other news, I'm going to be old on Saturday, a quarter of a century old! Woah! I'm sure I just had my 21st a few weeks ago.....

Hope all is well in your part of the world!

Adios amigos! Until I return from Spain xoxo

June in London

2006-06-23T11:42:00.000+01:00

I know its been awhile since I last put an entry on here, but thats because there hasn't been much going on!

Fat Freddy's Drop (NZ dub band) played over here on Friday 2 June, awesome concert! I've already seen them 3 times this year back in NZ but they always impress! They played at the Brixton Academy which seems to be one of the better venues over here. Very much like the St James, but the main room is about 4 times the size. And it was full of Kiwi's! A few of us then went to Picadilly Circus to some club. It was about 2am and some clubs still had the nerve to have a door charge! But we found a club that would let us in for free and we danced the nite away.

Am still loving London, always somewhere new to go and new places to see. I went on a ferry trip along the Thames to Greenwich with Paul and Mel, friends from back home (yes, more that are here!). I've been bits and pieces of the city but am still having trouble putting places in relation to where others are, so the ferry trip clarified a few things. We walked all the way up the hill to see the view and also to see the line for where time is made from (Greenwich meantime, GMT) but it had closed about 30mins before we got there, not happy! On the way down we were amused by some squirrels which I still hadn't seen here, hence the few photos of them.

Photos from ferry trip to Greenwich:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2105136043

I can't remember if I've mentioned playing outdoor netball here but its been really fun! I was playing indoor netball back home and there are quite a few different rules, so I took awhile to get use to it. But once I had the idea, my shooting has been really good :) There's a couple of english girls in the team who weren't happy about having to cut their nails tho.... get over it girls! They'll grow back!!

I've been to see a few more sights and yet more pubs. There are some really cool ones with great outdoor areas, one in particular I'm keen to go back too. They were even cooking burgers on the bbq!

More photos of friends around London:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2105230193

For those of you who know who I'm talking about, I went see Tiesto the other weekend... and he played for 6 hours!! For those of you who don't know, he was the worlds number 1 DJ in 2003 and I was lucky enough to meet him in New York and have my photo taken with him. He also played at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in 2004 in Athens, very cool!

We had a bbq at our place before heading there and I said to the boys, dont let me miss out on seeing him play (I have a thing for missing the main acts at big events) and they reassured me I wouldnt miss him considering he was playing for 6 hours and was the only act! Woah! He started up right as we walked into the venue and the nite just got better and better. Awesome atmosphere, great venue, much like the St James back home but easily 4 times the size. We were to the side most of the time where there was air conditioning, so it wasn't terribly hot. I then made the grand old effort of going to the Church again with other friends who hadn't been there yet. Bit of a mission but I made it :)

I'm going to Lisbon in Portugal this weekend, no doubt there will be many more photos!!

Until next time xoxo

Spring Bank Holiday Weekend

2006-06-02T15:52:00.000+01:00

2nd Flatwarming, The Church and Cheese Rolling - what a weekend!
I'd been sick all week (and still dragged myself to work every day) so decided a quiet Friday nite was in order so went to see Xmen 3. Predictable but something easy to watch when you dont want to have to think much.

On Sat, we had our 2nd flatwarming which seemed to be successful. Started in the afternoon and some people who hadn't made it the week before were able to join us in a few beers. I had my camera out this time, not always a good thing! I had a few more friends there from New Zealand, some who I hadn't seen yet, so was a good catch up with them.
More photos:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2105722321

After getting to bed about 3am, I was woken at 9am by flatmate Brad who isn't we all get up now and go to Church. Not just your ordinary church you would usually go to on a Sunday but the Church, a club that was set up years ago for those who wanted somewhere to go on a Sunday afternoon (www.thechurch.co.uk). So after complaining about it being too early to get up, we all left the house about 10am and got the line for the Church at midday. Not all the tube lines run on the weekends when they do maintenance, so it means a few buses here and there.
After queuing for an hour, we finally ventured inside to find this massive nite club happening in the middle of the day! It was a long weekend so I think that brought out a few more people to play. The best way to describe it is like the waterfront in Auckland, lots of very merry people all running around having a good time. So it was quite cheesy but also very fun. There was also a male stripper and a female stripper which got everyone excited, but after awhile they were too cheesy as well.
After being at the Church it was a mass expedition to the other side of town (conveniently where I live) to go to the Walkabout for more drinking beer, having shots and stupid cheesy photos, all of which can be found here:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2105724421

After getting home at midnite I wasn't looking forward to getting up early in the morning to go to the Cheese Rolling (www.cheese-rolling.co.uk/) but it was worth it! Took the train for 1.5 hours from Paddington Station (hadn't been there before) and after walking up through all these properties, came across this massive hill where people were apparently going to be chasing cheese! And they did!
I remember seeing Marc Ellis win the mens race years ago so was quite cool to see in person. A couple of Kim's mates ended up going down as well. It probably helped that the ground was quite muddy (it even hailed for 2 mins while we were waiting for it to start!) as lots of people ended up just sliding down. I have a video of it but not sure if the link will work, but give it a go.
And after a feed of McD's it was back on the train home, I couldn't wait for bed! But was glad I had made it through the long weekend.

Pics of Cheese Rolling:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2105721670

Video of Cheese Rolling:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2105718849

Flatwarmings galore!

2006-05-24T23:07:00.000+01:00

Somehow we ended up having 2 flatwarmings... not complaining! So we invited some people over for drinks the second weekend we were in our flat and it turned out to be a great nite! You know how sometimes you're not sure how many will show up? We ended up with a house full of kiwi's, with the odd aussie, south african and americans thrown in there and it made for a great time! When a few people had shown up, Kim said there will either be 10 people, or 50.... it was definately around 50 or so. It was like a club in our lounge room at one point, someone was even flicking the light so it was like a disco, hehe. And the party seemed to be in my room earlier in the nite, I walked in to find about 15 people having a ball! Altho they were kicked out by my flatmate Kim when someone spilt beer on my bed. And we had some randoms from down the road pop in. They were kiwi's too so they were quite happy to join in.
A few people stayed over and our friend Nick cooked us a yummy breakfast, definately needed it after all that beer. Mmmm bacon......

The next nite I went to another flatwarming in a place called Kilburn which I hadn't been to yet, so was looking forward to seeing another part of London. The girls who had the flatwarming I hadn't seen in over 2 years, so was awesome to see them, I didnt know one was over here until the week before, nice surprise! And yet another kiwi living it up in London (I'm beginning to wonder if there are any kiwi's back home......). Another flat full of kiwi's and it turned out some of my friends I'd take with me, new other friends there as well. I thought NZ was small, but its even smaller over here!

Here's a link with more photos:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2106004120

I then headed into the Soho area which would be best described like around the waterfront in Auckland at nite time, people everywhere and lots of action, I dont think London knows how to sleep! Some friends I use to work with at Tech Pacific, Ngaire and Allan (that I haven't seen in about 2 years) are ending their travels here so had farewell drinks at a bar I had been to about a month ago (of all the bars over here and I end up at the same one!) so at least I knew where I was going. Awesome to see them, we had a very merry time!

The weekend just been we had our 2nd flatwarming which started in the afternoon with a few drinks watching some soccer (the build up to the world cup is awesome over here, gona be great being here while its on! Even tho I dont think England as well as they're hoping....) adn then it turned into another kiwi party, more about that in the next post!

Photos from Ngaire and Allans farewell:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2106003882

Got a job and a flat!

2006-05-11T16:23:00.000+01:00

Ok so I've taken awhile to put this post up but its finally here. Will put a few in a row to catch up on the last month or so!
As much as I loved playing tourist, I knew at some point I would need to get a job. And after spending many hours at internet cafes I managed to get a long term receptionist job, phew! Other friends of mine have taken a bit longer to find jobs so I was preparing myself for a long wait until i found something, but it was my lucky day!
Most jobs are advertised on the internet so its a matter of finding something you want, emailing your cv to the agengy, waiting for them to contact you (either saying no, you're not the right person, or yes, come in for an interview), arranging a time to meet the agency, going for an interview at the place that has a position available then waiting for them to decide if you have the job. Well, normally thats the process. I somehow missed most of that and went from having an interview at an agency at 10.30am, then they called me 15mins later saying there was a position available, did I want them to pass on my cv and by the end of the day I had the job.... without even meeting the company that hired me! And I started the next day!
I work for a construction and engineering company called Fluor (www.fluor.com) as a receptionist/secretary. So I pretty much answer the phone, photocopy, make coffee and read the paper. Very similar to a part-time job I had while doing my degree.... its a piece of cake! Big bonus is I can surf the net all day, although I cant check my gmail which sux, but I can keep uptodate with all the news back home! And I get paid reasonably as well and its weekly, I'm hanging out for my first pay day! Another bonus is its either 2 tube stops away, a bus ride away, or a 25min walk..... and with London being so flat, the walk is gona be easy!
This picture is the view from my office, in the distance is the London Eye, I need to take another photo on a clearer day!
I think I'll stick at this job for a few months then look into banking jobs because I really want to get more banking experience, I just need some funds for now :)
AND we moved into our flat the other weekend... I finally have my own room again! I've moved in with 2 kiwi mates from back home Kim (who I was living with for the first month) and Brad. The funny thing was, we moved from house number 12a to 2a on the same street, so moving was rather easy. We had our flatwarming the following Friday, what a nite! More in the next post.
Had a friends 21st a few Sat nites ago, drinks at her flat first then into Leicestor Square to some club that plays Top 40 music, we'd all had quite a few drinks so didnt mind the music much! And apparently I was carving up the dance floor, yet again :) Wasn't good that I fell asleep on the bus going home! But I knew my stop was the last one, so wasn't too worried.
I'm loving taking the tube everywhere, its just so handy. I still think Auckland could do with an underground of some sort! My friends are spread out over London and so I'm trying to see as much of London as possible.
Hope the change of website hasn't been too confusing! Will try keep them more updated.
Loving the emails from back home so anytime you want to send one, would love to read it!

Here's photos from around London:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2106005933

More photos of my work:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2106003812

Anzac Day in London

2006-04-26T19:38:00.000+01:00

I had planned on going to Gallipoli but didnt make it in the end. I did however go to an Anzac day service at Westminister Abbey. It was a free event but you needed to send away to get a ticket and they asked that you take some ID with you as well, they're all very security conscience over here. Although I guess that isnt surprising seeing as its not quite a year since the London bombings.
I arrived at 11am for the wreath laying service which was very moving. There were diplomats from NZ, Australia, Turkey and Britain who all spoke about that day back on 25 April.

After this service, it was on to Westminister Abbey for the formal service. Amazing being inside this historical cathedral. Have seen it on TV but was still impressed seeing it in person. I sat next to an aussie girl who was also by herself and we were surrounded by other kiwi's and aussie's. The official guests sat in the main part while we were in the second half. I wanted to take photos inside but we weren't allowed. Was awesome to sing the National Anthem in English and Maori in there, made me miss home just a little bit!

Album of the rest of my photos:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2106004337

New blog and contact details

2006-04-22T00:36:00.000+01:00

I've decided to use this for my blog now, the other one isn't working all the time. Haven't put much on here yet but will try keep it more up to date.
Email me any time! bethanderson05@gmail.com
And my mobile number over here is +44 7766 824 738
(took me awhile to learn that long number!!)
And my address is:
2a Collingbourne Road
Sheperds Bush
London
W12 OJQ
Come over for a visit anytime!

Pics of Thailand

2006-04-13T14:09:00.000+01:00

Here's a link to all my photos in Thailand, didn't realise I'd taken 100 of them!
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2106006024

Here's a few of my pictures from Thailand, highly recommend going there if you can!!

Beach in Pattaya where I went diving

Main street where I stayed in Pattaya

Me standing on the Bridge over River Kwai

Me standing beside the reclining Buddha in Bangkok

Me by a temple in Bangkok

The Victory Monument in Bangkok - massive roundabout!

I think this building is the tallest in Bangkok, it stood out all over the city

Melbourne & Sydney

2006-04-06T12:23:00.000+01:00

I put posts about my 2 weeks in Australia on my old website which I'm hoping to copy over at some stage.

For now here are some photos, great seeing the family!

In Melbourne:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2106107531

In Sydney:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2106006094