A General Update

In the interest of ensuring this does not turn into a blog primarily devoted to football updates, I thought I'd better write a bit of an update. We recently reached the end of our first year in the UK and with the new year we found a new place to live, I found a new job and we've recently acquired some new housemates. I think Mike has already mentioned about the new flat, but we're living in a much nicer area and are very happy. Our council actually spends money on community events (like markets and art festivals), so there's always something happening within walking distance. For those who are familiar with Newcastle, where we're living reminds me of Derby St in Newcastle, lots of cafes, bars, pubs etc.

As for the new job, I started work a little over a week ago as a Nanny to 2 school age girls. Basically I'm working mornings and afternoons/evenings getting the kids ready for school, collecting them from school, entertaining them for the afternoon and cooking some dinner. So far it's all going well, but there's certainly some challenging behaviour to contend with.

Threeish weeks ago our new housemates, Katie and Jeremy arrived from America. We all get along well and so far it's a happy household. We're locked in to a 12 month lease so we're hoping things continue to go well. They're both going to be studying as of next week, and like us, hoping to fit as much travel in as possible.

We're often asked what the weather's doing over here, and there's not a whole to report other than we're still waiting for Summer, and the odds of getting a last minute heatwave are getting slimmer and slimmer each day. We have had to turn the central heating on this week so it looks like it's full steam ahead to another miserable English winter. With each cold day we console ourselve with thoughts of an Aussie Christmas...

I'm assuming most people are aware of this, but for those who haven't heard my little sister Alison, along with her partner Pete are expecting a baby in 6 weeks. Very exciting for my family. Other than that, nothing much else has happened in the world of Mike and Krystle. We've very much fallen into a routine of going to work, coming home to sleep and then drinking too much on the weekends and wishing we hadn't and vowing never to go out drinking with the Kiwi's anymore... but such is life, we'll never learn.

Fulham go back to back at home

So the Premier League season has, as you well know, kicked off strongly. You no doubt have been on the edge of your seat following the latest comings and goings, will he or won't he , regarding player transfers. Ronaldo to Real, Ronaldinho to Man City, everybody to Chelsea, the rumours never stop.

In the meantime Fulham, my new almost favourite club, have being quietly going about business rebuilding the team after the disastrous managership of Lawrie Sanchez almost saw them relegated. Current Boss Roy Hodgson is a well travelled and experienced manager who has bought well and from the last game seems to have got the balance of a good side. But in order to avoid fighting for relagation again this season, they don't need to beat the Arsenal's of the league, they need to regularly beat sides like Saturday's opponent Bolton, another who also just avoided been sent down last season. Fulham had recieved bouyant news when star midfielder Jimmy Bullard got a call up to Fabio Capello's England Squad for the World Cup qualifiers that had so rudely delayed my return to the Cottage.

You'll notice, of course, that I'm not patronising you by explaining all rudimentary details, because I know you all will have felt the passion and excitement of the win against Arsenal and thought, talked and dreamed of nothing but football since. Oh, you haven't . . . . my mistake then. Ah, I guess you probably don't care that Fulham best Bolton 2-1 then. And played them off the park in doing so. You couldn't care less about their fluid passing that was wonderous to behold. Don't need to be told that Jimmy run the midfield like a seasoned international to the strains of a chant that declared he was 'better than Steve Gerrard/Frank Lampard (what are the odds that so many great midfielders have rhyming names, not interested?) and come to our corner of the ground to take a free kick and humbly acknowledged the standing ovation his very presence demanded. Not too interested in hearing how Bobby Zamora, a golden child of the Championship Manager series circa 2000, is showing the sort of form that made him a stand out when playing the ultimate Football management simulation at the turn of the century. Non-plussed that new signing Andy Johnson, in his first start for the whites, is looking a complete bargain at 11 million pounds in only his first game since his summer move from Everton, or that Danny Murphy, clearly enjoying the new personal at the club, laid on some exquisite passes that completely opened up the Bolton defense, or Aussie Mark Schwarzer solid and reliable in goal. Ok then, sorry, won't be mentioning any of that. Shame, was a good game, maybe if you were there, no . . . . . . . right, no problem, I'll just go then. But before I do, let me just say

C'mon You Whites!!!!

Paul and Robbie's Big Adventure ........ starring us

In May we had our first international (and possibly only, it is such a long way) visitors when Robbie and Paul arrived. Some reference was made to their visit in a blog a few back which has been accused of damning them with faint praise. So let me just say from the outset that it was great to see them, share some of our experiences over here and have some lovely meals out. They landed early in the morning, but managed to summon the energy to come and visit us that afternoon for a meal, a short 3 hr drive across London, what a welcome. We took them to the White Horse in Chadwell Heath, one of our favourite pubs, good food and if you’re lucky a little Asian guy will come and sell you DVDs that seem possibly pirated, but I’d err on the side of supporting local business and giving the little guy a fair go. Robbie and Paul got the chance to see where we have been living, my school from the outside at least, and Paul got a driving experience of a lifetime when he took the mini for a spin, under my watchful eye of course. ‘But what cannot be denied, at least not by anyone who's actually had the privilege of driving one, is the towering engineering achievement that it represents ‘ and “doesn't leave you disappointed, even a little bit. If you don't want one, you're probably dead’ are some of the superlatives offered to describe other less notable cars and Paul was clearly no less impressed, even offering to swap the rented Merc for the duration of their stay. Krystle however, and to a lesser extent Robbie, was having none of this and in view of the fact Paul bounced the Merc off a gutter driving back through sheer exhaustion we were glad we didn’t take him up on his offer, and extra appreciative of the effort they had made.

Somebody looks a little jealous

They made another trip out to visit us later in the week and we took them to an Indian restaurant that Krystle and I had visited for her Birthday. The food is excellent, but strangely whenever we had gone past the place at maybe one or two people in it. We later discovered that he gets busy around 10pm, so why they sit open the rest of the day, including lunch, I don’t know.

Over their first weekend in London we visited Paul and Robbie and stayed with them at the apartment in Kensington at which they were staying. We went to a show with them, Monty Python’s Spamalot, which if you like Monty Python’s movie The Holy Grail you would enjoy the show. We went to Robbie and Paul’s favourite pizza restaurant that they always visit, several times, when they come to London, called Da Mario which was delicious. Robbie and Krystle made a trip to Notting Hill Markets, while Paul and I sat out at the cricket at Lords for many hours hoping the rain would stop. It didn’t, but Paul was still able feel for almost the first time the wonderment and exhilaration of a London Underground experience. Having hired a car each time they have been in London, Paul and Robbie have missed the mode of transport that defines London and its inhabitants.

The famous Lords pavilion

and the famous Lords UFO (actually the media centre)

And the covers stayed on

Despite the rain the day was not a complete washout (ha, ha) as we saw 8 overs of play, visited the museum and walked back to the tube station via the setting of the cover for Beatles last album, Abbey Rd, which is just around the corner from the cricket ground in St John’s Wood. It was fun to watch the tourists re-enacting that famous walk across the road, particularly as it is quite a busy road.

I don't think the guy in green realises that he is about to be hit by a car

The famous Abbey Road studio (so many famous things in one day)

The wall outside Abbey Road. People write messages on the wall, generally addressed to the Beatles or more specifically John Lennon. Every so often the wall is painted and the messages start again.

On the Sunday Paul and Robbie headed off to Hertfordshire for lunch with friends and Krystle and I decided we would stay around London for the day and then met up for dinner. After being dropped in Oxford Street, we jumped on the tube heading for the Natural History Museum but ended up at the Victoria and Albert Museum instead, so close! Anyway, it was quite interesting, though vast and some parts were a little strange, the metalwork collection being possible a little too much. You would really need to love iron being put into shapes to spend a long time in this area of the museum.

C'mon Fulham

Having been an SCG member for a few years now, experienced the F1 in Melbourne and the Indy Cars on the Gold Coast, visited Lords twice, really my only other unfilled dream remained seeing Premier League football. This, you may remember, was achieved last November when we went and saw Fulham play Blackburn. But to be honest this only partly fulfilled my dream. At the age of 10, as Craig Johnston made his way on the world footballing stage, I bought a second hand copy of Shoot magazine at a school fete and become a Liverpool fan. They were the pull out poster team for whatever month the issue was from and that poster adorned my bedroom wall throughout my childhood. I remember watching Liverpool beat Everton 3-1 in the 1996 FA cup final which began my love of watching football in the middle of the night. One of the coolest, but slightly strange things about livng here is watching sport during the day, more convenient, but lacks the self satisfaction you get from the effort you need to put in to be able to follow your team from half way around the world. Which brings us back to Fulham, which isn't my team. Nor is Blackburn for that matter. So, the reality of Premier League football was only partly fulfilled by our visit in the Autumn. The team I most wanted to see was Liverpool. Hamish, who I work with at school, is also a big Liverpool fan. He managed to see Liverpool play against West Ham, but unforunately Liverpool lost 1-0. When Liverpool made their away visit to Fulham's home ground, Craven Cottage, the cost of 240 pounds for one game was prohibitive. But when Hamish and a couple of his mates, Blunt and Little Andy, dreamed up the idea of becoming season ticket holders at Fulham, the chance to see Liverpool, Manchester Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and big name players like Lampard, Torres, Gerrard and Ronaldo, live seemed to good to miss. So the four of us have become season ticket holders and will be able to see up to 2 games each month, travel plans allowing.

v Arsenal 23.8.08


Fulham's home season kicked off against front running team Arsenal. Arsenal lead for much of last season, but ultimately finished 3rd. Still, they have a young talented side, while Fulham have looked to rebuild their team after almost being relegated to the next division last season, only a last day victory from 2 goals down saved them. They had also lost in the first game of the season to Premiership virgins Hull, 2-1. As the other guys (the self named Geezers) were pre-disposed at the Reading Festival, Krystle come for her second and possibly last?? game of football. I had told her if the score was 4-0 to Arsenal at half-time we might leave early, and I was expecting an easy victory for the visitors. Instead, we got a close and thrillingly tight contest that ended with a surprise, but ultimate;y deserved victory for Fulham. As we were sitting with the Fulham diehards, it as hard not to get caught up in the emotion of a victory over their more successful London rivals. If the rest of the games this season are as good, it will have been money well spent.

From our seats looking down the touch line. The guy standing up in a suit is
Fulham boss Roy Hodgson

Surprise scoreboard

The seats are located in the corner, but close to the ground

Looking across the stand at the hopeful Fulham faithful

And here are some videos to give you an idea of atmosphere and how we see the action

CARNAGE AS NORTH SHORE SLASHING BEGINS

I know this want matter much to anybody really, but I felt I needed to share this quite important piece of information. Some peoples lives may be shattered by this, while others will sit back wearing a self-contented smug and wonder if the inevitable fall in house prices will allow them to purchase a property just a little closer to the promised land. I am of course talking about this:

"PEOPLE have been fretting in the letters page about where Sydney's North Shore begins and ends. My dears, some advice: if you have to ask, they don't want you living there. But let's get it right. The North Shore begins at Boundary Street, Roseville. It runs up the Pacific Highway, and about two kilometres either side of it. East of the highway is far tonier than west. It ends at Burns Road, Wahroonga. Full stop."

Those who have mistakenly bought properties based on your belief that the locality was within the hollowed boundaries, I offer my condolences. Those who have aimed to work their way up the ladder and point out that in all likelihood you are now further away then when you bought your house. The economic impact may very well bring the Australian economy to a halt. That's what you get for voting Labor.

Jack Johnson in Barcelona, jealous? We know you are :)

We tend to cop it a bit because this Blog is so sporadically updated, or so they say. THEY claim that we hardly ever write anything on here and THEY say that we can go months without an update, and yet here we have our 3rd in 2 days. And as the charter of this blog clearly states that updates will only occur in months starting with the letter A enjoy it while you can because there will be nothing again until at least Actober! Also we do this for free which is hardly an incentive to update that often, maybe if we got paid, maybe through advertising, hmm on to something here (insert subliminal message: click on google ad please). If that has worked properly, then we have made a lot of money and will happily update this blog daily if that's what it takes. Woke up, raining again, caught the train to work. Train was late, again. See, scintillating tales from suburban London. That said, we are just about one year in this country and we have made 26 completed blog posts, which is actually about one every two weeks. Pretty good going really. That equates to about 13000 words, which if laid end to end would reach from here to the moon . . . . maybe.

As the title alludes ever so subtly to, at the end of June we flew to Barcelona and saw Jack Johnson, live, in concert. And it was great. We jetted into Barcelona for about 24 hrs. Our Ryanair flight was at a reasonable 9.oo am, so we didn't have quite the 3am start that has plagued other trips. The first problem occurred when we arrived at the airport and realised that our ATM card was at home. Now we don't need to go into who's to blame for this, it really isn't important. Let's just say that the party responsible has been severely reprimanded and has been put on notice to improve their performance or face immediate dismissal. Luckily we had some left over Euros from our last visit to the continent, but knew that we would have to really on credit cards in a country that neither of us spoke the language. The next problem, really a continuation of the first was that although Ryanair tell you they are taking you to Barcelona, which is here, they actually land somewhere completely different, actually just about here. This is one of the joys of Ryanair where for what you pay that just about get you there. It was going to cost us to travel from Girona to Barcelona about 50 Euros, and we only had 70 Euros on us. Faced with a dilemma we decided to hire a car. While a little more expensive it was a great decision, though when I first jumped in the car and realised everything was on the wrong side, I don't think either of us were convinced. Particularly as the car was a manual. We took a leisurely route to Barcelona, avoiding the bland motorways that so blight the countryside and reduce every trip in every country to a single common experience, without charm or appeal.

The view of the countryside from our car, it got even better once we hit the ocean road, just trust us on that. Notice the clear blue sky though.

We instead found ourselves meandering down the Spanish coast on a bright, sunny summers day. We learnt several things on this trip. 1. Spain is a beautiful country 2. We would like to go back to the Costa Brava region again 3. Spain is much warmer the England and 4. Spain has road side ladies . . . of the night, during the day. And they get to sit and shade themselves. Must have a good union.

We arrived in Barcelona in the late afternoon and managed to find our way there without having or causing an accident, going the wrong way through a roundabout, having the aid of a GPS or speaking even a single word of Spanish, very impressive. We found our Hotel and had a look around the streets of Barcelona.

The castle wall behind our hotel. This picture was taken from our room.


One of the back streets that seem to maze their way around the city . . . . . .

before you stumble back upon a main street. Remember to look left as you cross!

The highlights here included attempting to park in the smallest car spaces ever seen in a car park, a very nice dinner in a little Spanish restaurant that had what looked like preserved meat carcasses hanging from the ceiling, the completely naked man walking down the street who had some people stop him to take a photo with him and then the realisation that we needed to go to Jack Johnson, but really had no idea where it was. Actually, that's not entirely true. We knew it was in Badalona, which we had seen signs for on our drive into the city. We knew it was being held at the Olympic Basketball Stadium, we knew that we didn't know where that was and we knew we didn't speak Spanish. I did ask at a information booth in Barcelona, but obviously all those working here when Barcelona held the Olympics back in 1992 have been sacked or moved on to bigger and better things, because they had no idea. Spain and Basketball actually have a bit of a chequered relationship - check here and here, so maybe they just didn't want to be associated with the sport.

We decided to drive to Badalona and just drive around until we stumbled on the right place. That would work at Homebush because there is nothing else at Homebush, but as we stumbled off a freeway exit to Badalona, that at that point I thought may have been the wrong exit, we weren't entirely confident our strategy would pay off real quick. Plan B was quickly enacted, whereby I went to the first servo I saw and tucked in with the intention of covertly looking up directions in a street directory and using it without paying. Unfortunately service stations in Spain don't sell maps. So I needed to ask the attendant, or representante de servicio al cliente who spoke no English. I flashed him my ticket, he gave me a knowing look that suggested I wasn't the first nor would I be the last dumb foreigner to require his assistance, calmly led me to the window at the back of the store and pointed across the street. Success!!

The show was great, the first act we particularly enjoyed. He's name is Mason Jennings and I've included a few links for those inclined to listen to good music.
- Be Here Now
- Jackson Square

The second support act was G Love and the Special Sauce, which were about as good as the name suggests. Here some songs to check out anyway, but we found the lead singer, G Love himself, really, really annoying.
- Cold Beverage
- Baby got Sauce

Jack was very good, though a little hard to see through the thick haze. In Spain, the 3rd World country that it is, smoking inside is still allowed and the venue was a smogged filled, gasping for breathe experience that leaves you wondering how anyone thinks smoking in public venues was or is ever a good idea. That aside we had saw a really good show, and so can you if you want.
- Angel/Better Together
- Go On
- Sitting Waiting Wishing
- Rodeo Clowns
- Good People
- Banana Pancakes
- Times Like These

The show was was also notable for the oppressive humidity, the like of which we haven't experienced for almost a year now. Actually, the next day when we flew out, was our first day over 30 degrees since Bangkok last August, and still our only day over 30 despite the season being summer. Because we were really only there for the one night we only had a cursory look but it looks like a very beautiful city and we are most keen to go back again.

Note: our camera run out of batteries early in our trip so we didn't end up with many photos, another reason we'll need to go back.

Two Australians walk into an Irish Bar, and the Barman says . . . . . . .

Our second sojourn of the summer has been another revisit of sorts, bit of a theme here, as we took the opportunity of 1p flights to head back to Ireland, this time to Cork. We actually stayed a little outside of Cork, quite close to Blarney, in a small township called Killeens. Because our flight was so cheap, we had a 6.20am departure, which meant leaving here at 3.00am. And of course being summer, no, no rain, but it was chilly and foggy. We arrived in Cork and had a day to explore.

A bubbling brook in Cork (no the lamp post is not sticking out of the water)

Beautiful sunny morning in Cork looking up the River Lee

After a very nice breakfast at a pub we found, we took a bus tour around the city. Cork is actually a series of marshy islands that have been built over to make the city. Many of the streets run along waterway paths that have been built over and turned into streets. We were keen to have a look at the old goal, and found it very interesting. It was originally a mixed prison and then just for women. It was closed in the early 1920's but today remains as a demonstration of how it used to be. The goal uses lots of wax models and has an audio accompaniment that give you a lot of interesting history and a good idea of what the goal was like.

The main entry to the goal

The goal has turrets like a castle, looks really impressive, a far as goals go

People used to be punished in the goal by walking in a circle until they got dizzy. That'll learn 'em

No it didn't, so they tried this method instead. Here a young Max Mosley experiences his first beating, delightful!

Krystle was tired from being up so early, so found a place to have a quick nap

We also had a look at the butter museum, which was actually more interesting then it sounds, and it is recommended by the financial times. We actually went in their because Cork weather is just like London weather, and it had changed from just about to rain to actually raining, and we didn't feel like getting wet.

Our accommodation was quite isolated, but still very nice (click here). It was also quite close to a hotel which had a nice bar. We found ourselves there on the Friday night and amongst a Football club trivia night. I (correctly) anticipated a large number of Irish questions, and having never finished worse then second in Trivia decided my record was not going to be destroyed by some local knowledge questions. We wouldn't have won, but we wouldn't have come last either. We did enter the raffle though, Krystle's first for an entire year and won a bottle of wine. We later had to pay 20 Euros (20.00 Eur=33.8843 Aud - XE: the world favourite currency site 19.8.08) to check a bag in for our flight home, necessitated by the ludicrous 100ml limit in carry-on luggage. Apparently if you take a bottle of wine on the plane, then ask for a cork screw to open it, the cork screw could be used as a weapon to take over the plane. Still a fun night was had and that's the main thing.

We enjoyed Cork and the surrounding areas, but did find it all quite expensive. A pub lunch with a bottle of wine cost 43 Euros (43.00 Eur=72.8584 Aud - XE: the world favourite currency site 19.8.08), a bottle of wine cost 19.95 Euro (19.95 Eur=33.8097 Aud - XE: the world favourite currency site 19.8.08). We found that we may have found somewhere to eat and drink more expensive then London. We normally pay around 7-10 pounds (about 15-20 dollars) for a pub lunch/dinner wine, so the prices being asked seemed a little high. We had also had a rip-off of a taxi trip. After walking into Blarney in the morning, about a 5 and a half km walk, we got a cab out that cost us 10 Euros (you can do the Maths by now surely). As it cost us 12 Euros to get from Cork it seemed steep. I paid with a 50 though, so I think he was punishing me for that.

What is it???

No, really, no one is quite sure. The town of Blarney is offering a cash prize to anyone who can tell them

How much further do we have to walk, aren't we at Blarney yet?

Another early flight, this time 8.10am so up at 6.00am, we arrived back in London to, you guessed it, rain.