Happy Devali!!!

Hi all,

Apologies for not updating sooner, but here's what we've been up to in the last week and a bit. This week has been busy, and very noisy due to Guy Fawkes (some dude who tried to blow up Parliament a few hundred years ago) night, and Devali (some kinda religious thing where they blow stuff up). Last week we also had Halloween, which is a far bigger deal than at home. We had trick or treaters for 4ish hours so I was extremely impressed with the turnout. Anyway, it sounds like we live in a war zone as I type, and we were able to have fireworks one night.

We went to Cambridge last weekend. Had a look around on Saturday before going to the pub on Sat night. We enjoyed a leisurely trip up the canal on Sunday, before finding a pub for lunch and heading home. The boat trip was a great way to see all the old universities, bridges etc. We're off to Oxford this weekend, which hopefully will be nice too.

Thought I should answer the question everyone keeps asking too... yes it is cold, but so far I think we're coping okay. I've learnt from experience that despite there being blue sky, it is too cold to go out without a coat. I thought it was hilarious the first time i heard kids at school being reminded of the 'no coat no play' rule ... but where were their hats? I've since wondered whether this rule will get me out of playground duty.

Think that's about all for now. We've recently discovered that we can film stuff with the digital camera, but I will warn that the quality leaves a lot to be desired. If you're short of time, not reading at work on your employers time, or suffer from motion sickness, maybe give the filmed pieces a miss.

We drove down this street in Cambridge not realising it was blocked at the end.

And ended up like this:






The river at Cambridge (with the kind of boat we went for a cruise in):

A sign we saw that reminded us of the dangers of swimming in shallow canals that are easily comparable to the surf we know at home.

Our tour guide Paul who was informative, entertaining and very good at making the boat thingy go.

This is how our 'war zone' sounded. Our neighbours are either really angry with each other, or love their Devali, as this went on for over 5 hours.

This was the grand finale at our own backyard Guy Fawkes celebration.

Who Could Resist ... ?

On Wednesday night we headed to the Cambridge Theatre in London to see Kelly. Mike doesn't have kids at school this week (an inset week), and has next week off. I have this week off and go back to school when Mike has time off, so it hasn't worked out too well, but it's okay. Anyway, we went into London, found a pub for an hour or so, then saw the show. Believe it or not, Kelly appeared to be quiet talented.

Other than that, not much has happened this week. We went to dinner tonight with the year 3 teacher Mike works with, Sara and her husband Will. What could be better than a tradition English meal, in a traditional English pub?

We hope you're all thinking of us while you're enjoying 30 degree days. We're lucky if it's hotter than 10 degrees, and Mike has noticed cars are having a layer of ice form on the windscreen in the morning.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

I know that technically it's not the 12th in Australia anymore (because you're soo far into the future), but HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Hope you can get your present off Mum every once in a while!!

We were speaking about Dad's this evening whilst at a pub in London with Coraline (our housemate who can't drink with the Aussies!). A little back story, Paul very generously gave us some English currency at the airport and said wisely "tuck 20 pounds in the back of your purse in case of an emergency". This advice was taken and 20 pounds has remained in the back of the purse every since... with the exception of 2 times. Two emergencies in the time we've been here!! One: no wine in the fridge on a Friday night! Completely outrageous! And two: at the pub for lunch today with no money for drinks! We've been at pubs for lunch and dinner, drinking for a cause. Cheers Dad!!!

On the way home Michael commented that so far nearly all the good English experiences have involved a pub. ie, London Dungeon was crap ... the pub we had lunch in; good. Bad day at work is directly related to a good night at a pub. Thank god for 'Thank God It's Friday'!

**WARNING** Our post are officially crap because our lives are no more interesting than they were at home (we just drink a little more). We officially love our housemate Coraline because "she no speak no English no good" but she knows how to say #$%@!!!

Life's More Fun When You're Driving A Mini!!

Well some of you know by now, but others don't. Mike and I have recently purchased one of the coolest cars in Britain. We searched high and low for a warm, non leaking, reliable care and ended up with this:

It's sooo cute!! We're currently accepting name suggestions cause nothing seems to fit just right.

Home Sweet Home!

I've been meaning to put some info up about where we're living since we arrived... Basically our house is a little like the Big Brother house (minus the cameras). We vote people out, we get surprise housemates and certain topics cause heated discussions (like what to watch on tv, and more recently how we should kill the mouse that has appeared in the kitchen).

Jim and Jan own the house we live in, but they live in the country. Their adult children live with us. Katie (their daughter) and Ben (Katie's partner) are permanent housemates, Geoff (Jim and Jan's son) is another permanent housemate. For the first month we were here the youngest daughter Maria also lived here, but she'd been evicted to university in Leeds. Jo, a friend of Katie's was also here for a few days, but she's gone back to Devon. Jack (Jim and Jan's cat) also resided here, but he's since gone to live in the country with Jim and Jan. Confused yet? Katie and Ben are in their mid 20's, and expecting a baby in February. Geoff is 23 (I think) and runs a building maintenance company that he's just started.

The next housemate (who arrived about 3 weeks after us) is Nick. He's a thirty-something, P.E. teacher. We've recently found out he's leaving at the end of the year to move back to Wales. It's too expensive for him to live in London as he's driving back to Wales every weekend anyway. He and Mike love talking sport just to annoy everyone else!

The next arrival was Coralina who arrived last week. She's from France and is over here to work as a language assistant at the same school as Nick. Two days after Coralina's arrival was Agnetha who's from Germany. She too is working as a language assistant at the same school. Both Agnetha and Coralina are 22. Elsa, Coralina's cousin, was here for a few days and will be back to visit every couple of weeks.

Everything's pretty good and we all get on reasonably well. We can also go a few days without seeing people too which helps. Last week we had a French Crepe night where Elsa cooked dinner for us all. We followed dinner with a French film, can't say I'm too fond of subtitles. We all headed to the pub one night for Coralina's birthday one night which was nice too.

There's 8 of us at the moment, and most night's dinner is spread over three sittings. The washing machine never seems to stop and there's never space to dry clothes if it's raining outside. You practically need an appointment if you want a shower before 9am as we only have one shower.

This was taken at O'Gradys, our local pub;

Next to Mike is Agnetha and Ben. Opposite Ben is Geoff, Katie, Coralina and Elsa. Nick couldn't make it.

Mike and Jack (don't show Monty mum!).

Photo's of our room:

Living room:

Kitchen:

Backyard:

Let's see how this blog thing works and the London Dungeon suck!!

The title sums up the theme of this post. This is my first time at posting and all I can promise is I won't write as much info as Krystle, or be anywhere near as entertaining. Krystle has obviously done all the posts so far, while my role has been a participant and spell checker. But I'm off the bench now (footballing metaphor cause I'm currently watching the Premier League preview for today's games, so much football not enough time!) and ready to play a starring role. I don't know how to do photos though and I don't think we took any anyway.

So my job is to report on our trip to the London Dungeon and it was without a doubt our most disappointing experience so far. We had seen it the previous week on our bus tour and thought it sounded interesting. We booked our tickets on-line during the week for a 3.30pm time and what was labelled Fast-track and headed into London on the day with the sun shining after a fair bit of rain during the week.

We arrived at London Bridge station and walked past the Dungeons where the queues seemed reasonable and went to find our obligatory pub lunch experience. I'll digress briefly to comment on how good we have found the pubs here. Foods always been good, enjoyable atmosphere and bottles of wine with prices that make buying it by the glass inconceivable. The pubs here don't believe in ice buckets so you find yourself drinking quite quickly to finish the bottle before it gets warm.

After we had our lunch we walked back to the Dungeons to find a massive queue for the Fast-track line. We had to wait a good hour in this line despite having paid for fast entry. We tried to get our money back rather than wait but the staff were unfriendly and unhelpful. Once inside (with more queuing) the exhibits ranged from mildly entertaining to just plain dull. For a place that bills itself as being scary, it wasn't really. Having people jump out at you and shout at you gets a little tedious after a while. Krystle was a little more jumpy than I was but I don't think she was that scared either. The exhibits finish with one of those rides that lift you up and then suddenly drop you, which is supposed to simulate your head being chopped off or something equally tenuous. It was actually scary though because they drop you in complete darkness, but we left very disappointed and a little more wary of visiting lame touristy attractions.

The next day we had lunch with our landlords, Jim and Jan, and the rest of our housemates, which was quite nice. Later we went into Leicester Square and saw a movie (that Chuck and Larry one). Tickets were over thirteen pounds each, so again seems aimed at taking as much money from tourists as they can. Great cinema though, with the only comfier seats we've experienced probably being in Gold-class.

That's it from me then, normal transmissions will resume soon!

Harrods!

Last weekend we didn't really set out for Harrods, but somehow ended up there while doing an open top double decker tour around London. I finally found a multilevel store and I couldn't afford a damn thing in it! I was extremely unprepared for the Harrods retail experience, where shopping is an extreme sport and we were merely spectatators for the most part. There were various emotions experience through the experience. Shock whilst looking at price tags, envy/jealousy whilst walking through the jewellery department, delight in the Christmas section, outrage that there was a VIP entrance that we weren't invited in. Last but not least there was pure joy and elation at finding the one thing we (ok, maybe I) came to London for: a Harrods bear! After a long month we've finally started our travelling bear collection.

Love Mike and Krystle

P.S. If anyone has any family news send it our way. We'd love to hear how everyone's going.

Top Ten

There are so many great things about living in London (or on the borders of) that we thought we'd compile a list of our favourites so far. And the good news is there aren't too many dislikes (except crowds!).

1. Alcohol being readily available in supermarkets, newsagents, corner shops etc. And for once it's actually cheaper to buy bottled wine than cask. Given that the Aussie's consume more alcohol per head than any other country (or so the English news said), we could learn a few things from the Brits.
2. With the booze flowing freely, it's great that nobody has to drive. The buses are frequent enough that it isn't really a hassle not having a car.
3. Home and Away and Neighbours are screened twice a day.
4. Shopping! Cheap clothes, cheap books, cheap foods. Note: only cheap if spending pounds.
5. Football. This has been Mike's only contribution so far, and truth be told I'd be more inclined to put it on the 'Things I Hate About London' list. Let's just say there's no shortage of sports coverage in the news. Having said this I almost feel a little bad when foreigners comment about Australian teams and I haven't a clue what or who they're talking about. For a split second last week I thought about taking an interest in rugby.
6. Eddie's newsagency. This is our local newsagent/corner shop/bottle shop and it's run by the friendliest little Indian man in Ilford. Sometimes Mrs Eddie works there too and we're already very loyal customers. Always try to top up our oyster cards (used on the tube) and mobiles, and buy papers from there even though we can get them from Tesco.
7. Not to get stuck on the alcohol theme, but pubs being on every corner is incredibly handy (just in case you need a loo or something).
8. Cheap musicals. The current list consists of; Dirty Dancing, Chicago, Grease, Buddy, Cabaret, Footloose, Fame, Monty Python's Spamalot, Mama Mia and the Lion King. The good news is we've ticked We Will Rock You off the list.
9. Commuting. Yes, you've read it right. I'm currently travelling out of London in the morning so generally speaking I'm heading in the opposite direction to the crowd. This means I get a seat and can relax for the journey. I'm spending 2-3 hours a day and get to catch up on podcasts, do a couple of Sudukos or read a magazine or book. The only slightly disappointing things is that I can't read for too long or I start to feel a little motion sick.
10. The internet. Although this last one isn't specific to London, it makes life easier in term of living abroad. We're on Skype now, we can email family, download Hinchy's podcast (currently my fave), check Aus news to read about things like Andrew John's incident which I didn't even see on any UK news. I think it'd be different if we couldn't call home as often, or had to wait for letters.

So that's our favourite stuff so far. We've also learnt lots too. Like keep an umbrella in your handbag, along with antibacterial wipes. I can't believe how dirty our hands feel after catching a bus or tube. Another thing we've found is that you come to accept and not worry when an Arabian looking guy with a backpack gets on a bus. Muslims, Indians, Lebanese etc are everywhere. That said, I got off my first train this week. I could handle the race, backpack, but the rocking, sweating and chanting was too much. I've discovered how incredibly untalented I am at identifying accents, I completely missed an Aussie accent today and have accused South Africans of being Kiwi's and Germans.

Kind of a pointless post, but that's our frame of mind after nearly a month. We're well and having a good time, although we miss Murphy!

Edited to add: I know it's a top 10 list, but Mini's and 3 wheel cars should be on the list! We 'mini-spot' everywhere we go.

Blackpool

Last Friday night, after much indecision through the day we decided to head to Blackpool for our first weekend away. Blackpool is in North-West England (about 3.5 hours from London), and is a coastal town aimed at tourists. We thought it would be train would be the cheapest and easiest way there but were a little disappointed with how the train service works. Apparently 30 quid each ($A70ish) doesn't even guarantee a seat! We got a cab from the station and in hindsight have realised he took us right round town before the hotel. Next time I think I'll leave the guide books in the suitcase and hopefully look less touristy!

There's basically one main road through Blackpool running alongside the beach. There's a theme park called Pleasure Beach, double decker trams, amusement halls and several piers off the main drag. There's an endless supply of souvenir shops, psychics and basically anything to make the tourists spend. To Mike's delight there were also endless vendors selling doughnuts, hot dogs, fairy floss, and lollies. We went on the ferris wheel and saw the Ripleys museum, but other than that we were happy to walk and take in the sights. At night there are lights all along the street and spotlights are beamed into the sky which is quiet pretty.

Here's a couple of photo's;

You can see how far the water goes out at low tide in this picture. It's about 75 meters, and at high tide it comes right up to the wall. It's the Irish Sea but it looks more like a lake.

Blackpool Tower which is all lit up at night.

Double decker tram.

Mike on ferris wheel:

Blackpool at nights, 11 miles of lights:

Just an update on the job front for those who haven't heard. I've been offered the 2 week block at the school in Loughton that I did a couple of days at. They've also offered me a full time maternity cover position which will most likely be long term, which starts after the half term break in October. It's a nice school but a pain to get to. I'll have a couple of hours commuting each day, but everyone's so nice up that it isn't so bad. Not much else to report. It's definitely getting colder and they days are getting shorter so Winter isn't far off. I'm not sure whether this relates to the cold or not, but on the way to school last week Mike saw a squirrel! I'm yet to see one (ever) but I'll keep on looking.

Hope everyone is well. Love Mike and Krystle xox

Our First Week

Well it's safe to say we've survived our first week relatively well. We're fairly settled despite the broken sleep, but we're hoping that will all get better this week. We've had a chance to explore our new neighbourhood which is extremely multicultural, and Mike's started at his new school. For those who haven't heard he has a year 4 class and is really pleased with his class. Apparently they're like little angels compared to his last class!

The first three days we were here we headed into London. From where we live there are bus stops and an above ground train station within walking distance. We catch the train to Stratford which connects up with most of the tube lines. It takes us about half hour to get to London plus 10 minutes each way walking to the station. We've learned not to catch buses during peak hour as it took over an hour to get home from Stratford, which should only take 10-15 minutes.

Anyway, the first day we headed into London we ended up buying tickets for 'We Will Rock You', which was on at the Dominion Theatre. There are all these discount booths to buy half price tickets from which we thought was great. The show was great, or the music was. The storyline was a little tacky but over all we had a great night. Here's a picture of the theatre entrance;

We've had a good look around the shops and pubs in Central London, but haven't had a chance to do any of the touristy stuff like museums etc. We've also explored the shops at Stratford, and more recently Romford. I can't work out how to get an actual map on here, but here's a link for those who are interested http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Ilford&ie=UTF8&ll=51.562559,0.070038&spn=0.094763,0.31929&z=12&om=1 You should be able to see Ilford in the middle, Romford to the right and Stratford to the left.

I'm not sure whether I'm not looking in the right places, but England doesn't seem to have a Westfield, or anything resembling a multi-level shopping centre. According to the locals Romford is massive, but somehow or another I don't think they truly know what a massive shopping centre is. Despite it's shortcomings, we still found stuff to buy so it's not all bad!

The last few nights our main source of entertainment has been our favourite new reality show called Dumped. They've basically thrown a group of people in a dump, and they have to live off the dump for three weeks. Fascinating viewing! Been pleased to discover some local shows too like Kath and Kim, All Saints and Neighbours. I have to wait another 10 weeks before I'll see a new Home and Away because they're behind.

In terms of work, the agency I'm using have done quiet well considering schools have only been back for 2 days. I've got work Monday and Tuesday next week which should lead to a couple of weeks relieving someone off on sick leave. The school is in Loughton which isn't too far either which is handy. A full time position also came up but it was in South London and 1.5 hours away on a good trip so decided to hold out for something closer.

Will update again soon. Love Mike and Krystle xo

Dads' Day!

Just wanted to say a quick Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads. Hope you all have a great day.

Love Mike and Krystle

London

Well after such a hectic flight we finally arrived in London. We were met by a fabulous driver called Dave who gave us a tour and stacks of advice. On our way to the house we were able to see the West End, Harrods by night, the Palace which I must say was a little disappointing. It was much smaller than I thought. We also saw London Bridge and the London Eye which was exciting. By the time we got to the house it was about 9pm, and we were exhausted.

After a good nights sleep we were feeling much better and up for shopping. We're within walking distance of Tesco and an Aldi so decided to try Tesco and discovered its so much more (and better) than Australian supermarkets. There were clothes, electronics, books, homewares all under the same roof as groceries! Needless to say, shopping took quiet a while. We were delighted to discover that books are the same price as magazines, and were able to get a sim card to get at least one mobile working. 90 pounds later we'd bought enough food for a week and discovered Tesco is a lot further from the house when you've got bags of shopping and no car!

We spent the afternoon unpacking and went for a walk around our block. I'll post photo's of our room and inside the house later, but here's some from outside and of Mike's new school.

12 Hours of Chaos!

The Bangkok to London flight was definitely more painful than the Sydney to Bangkok leg. Although we arrived safely, we lucked out in terms of fellow passengers and got a flight with far too many young kids on it. If they weren't screaming or crying, they were running down the aisles and completely uncontrollable. There was also a group of 10 guys, who all looked like sterotypical terrorists, and to make matters worse they kept going to the toilets in groups. There were no individual screens for entertainment, the food was terrible, the staff seemed to be too busy to serve drinks etc and the screaming kids made sleep impossible. All in all, 12 hours is far too long to be on a plane!

Bankok - Anyone for Ping-Pong Show?

Need I say more? For a city that we spent less than 24 hours in, there's certainly a lot to say. We arrived in Bangkok around 4pm after a relatively hassle free flight, and made it through immigration and customs with no dramas. It took roughly an hour to get to the hotel and after checking in and phoning home we hit the streets.

There were a few markets setting up on the main road outside our hotel so we wandered down past them all, after being hassled to buy by most of the marketeers. We also encountered a driver who offered to drive us round for an hour to see the sights for roughly $4 Australian and decided it would be the easiest way to look around given that we only had one night. The bike thingy he drove us round in was fairly terrifying as we weaved past buses, trucks, cars and motorbikes. The roads have no sense of order, no lines are marked and although there are speed limit signs everyone seemed to ignore them. We saw a family of four on a motorbike, and a couple on a motorbike with their puppy which was quite cute.

Anyway after seeing a local temple, and a couple of large shopping districts our driver took us to a place for diner after we declined the opportunity to see a live show. We ended up at a genuine Thai restaurant and got some fantastic food before the rain. After dinner we had about an hour to kill before the night markets start so asked if the driver could take us somewhere where we could get a drink. We thought a bar or pub would be the most logical place, but he had other thoughts. He took us to a place that was advertised as a karaoke bar, but we didn't see any karaoke. Mike received several offers for a "special Thai massage" and we had one drink (because we didn't want to be rude) before leaving. From here we were able to walk to the night markets and discovered that offers of special Thai massages were plentiful.

By the time we got to the markets the rain was pouring down. It was actually quite pleasant because the weather is so humid. Most of the markets had similar goods like, pirated DVDs, t-shirts, jewellery, bags and shoes, and everyone bartered until a price was agreed on. We bought a few things, but couldn't go overboard because there wasn't much room left in our suitcases. On the sidewalks next to the markets there were strip clubs, most of which you couldn't avoid seeing in. We couldn't walk 2 metres without being asked to come see a ping-pong or banana show. After a couple of hours shopping we headed back to the hotel and went to bed after a quick drink in the hotel bar.

Despite the strip clubs, brothels, sex shows and general seediness of the place we would like to come back and spend a little more time in Bangkok. Although it was a smelly, hot Asian city, it was also a very colourful place. Anyway here's a couple of photo's.

The bike thingy we were driven around on:

On said bike:

Room at hotel:

Colourful taxis: