Patriotic Kiwis and Kilts

Following on from our last blog (sorry we've been slack!)........

We went and had our first UK pub meal(on Saturday night) - with Mushy peas - eww yuck! They are every bit as bad as I imagined they would be, however we were able to wash them down with a very nice Stella Artois - ON TAP!


On Sunday, we got up early, put our faces on(see photo below) and got to the train station for the trip back to Edinburgh for the Scotland vs All Blacks game. It was quite amusing walking through Glasgow to get to the train, as I think they didn't really understand why we were painted up!


Once we got to the train station, were learnt why people say that Brits/Scots know how to cue - there was a ginormous cue for the train to Edinburgh - all people with the same intentions as us. The cue went from inside the train station, to outside and around about four bends of a carpark! Once we arrived, although we had no clue where we were going, we just followed the sea of people and got to the stadium nice and early - however the extra time was spent having photos with tourists - they quite liked our painted faces! Some little kids in the stands beside us liked our faces so much that we did theirs for them too!



One thing that really astounded us, was that about 1 in 5 people that were dressed in All Blacks supporter clothing, weren't actually kiwi - but foreigners - we hadn't realised that the All Blacks were that popular outside of NZ.

We had a couple of big loud Kiwis in front of us, and they were really funny when the members of each team were introduced on the big screen - they cheered at each All Black, except didn't cheer for Reuben Thorne - making their lack of interest in him quite public.


Anyway, as you all know the game was a goody - bar all the dumb AB handling errors, (NZ 40 - Scotland 0)however I would say about 50% of the errors were due to the closeness of the jersey colours between the two teams - somebody majorly stuffed up there! After the game we hung back, and were able to see Jonah Lomu and Justin Marshall in the seats below us.


We then joined the sea of people walking back into Edinburgh - though the council hadn't closed the road, we did! No cars could get through. What was even funnier was that someone had brought a rugby ball with them, and they were kicking it up into the crowd, much to everyone's delight. It got lost a few times, in some scrub on the side of the road, or hitting a double decker bus or down a basement(below road level) it was greeted with cheers when it was booted up in the air again/or hit something.


One of the funniest incidences was this convertible with some pretty young girls in it, thinking they were cool with the top down of the car, waiting for the crowd to pass. A Kiwi guy takes a blow up Kiwi (bird) over to them and said something along the lines of "Safety kiwi thinks you should put your seat belts on" - that got a roar from the crowd as the girls weren't wearing seat belts, and felt obliged to put them on!


We then caught the train back to Glasgow for the night, just managing to get to a Buffet Indian restaurant for dinner - top class Indian food, and as much as you want mmmmm.


By the way we also learnt that Glasgow did have a festival on, so the large crowds were due to this!

The next morning(Monday) we again returned to Edinburgh, however we thought we would be clever and use the station beside our motel, however this turned out to be an hour longer then the other trip, with 18 stops around the Scottish suburbs! Oops!

Once in Edinburgh, we caught our first Black cab to our motel, dropped our stuff, then made our way back to town to do a couple of sightseeing bus tours - very interesting. As we were deciding on what to have for dinner that night, we bumped into a friend of Bev's from his Massey Uni hockey team! Such a small world!


On Tuesday we got up and left early for our 9am train back to London(we didn't miss it this time) - back to the grind of finding work and accommodation, and sleeping on the floor!

Less Glamourous Glasgow

On Saturday- This morning we had a yummy breakfast at an Italian Cafe - then we checked out, and caught the train to Glasgow - approx 50 mins away - only because we couldn't get accommodation in Edinburgh for the game - the guy at the train station had a good chuckle at our train plans...Edinburgh to Glasgow on Sat, Glasgow to Edinburgh to Glasgow on Sun, Glasgow to Edinburgh on Mon!

Once we arrived we checked in to our hotel then watched a very gripping Tonga (said Tong-ga over here - hehe) vs South Africa - aw shucks I am so proud of our pacific island neighbours - they made South Africa sweat something chronic!

We then had a look around Glasgow mainstreet - I am in materialistic heaven - there are so many cool clothes and shoe shops over here I have just about abandoned all ideas of ever seeing the rest of Europe just to have an awesome wardrobe! However, since we have don't have much money -we can't really do either(travel or Me have a glamourous wardrobe)- well at least until we earn some of those elusive pounds :o)

We were even more stoked when we saw our first black, sleek Lamborgini - I think they saw us drooling, and revved the engine for us! Must practice nonchalance!

So town was extremely busy - just loads and loads of people - like some sort of festival or something was on! But I think it must always just be like this on a sat! Glasgow definitely isn't as cool as Edinburgh, I think it is the whole castle sitting on a hill thing that really makes Edinburgh special. Glasgow appears to be more of a Metropolis for shopping (not a bad thing in my book) whereas Edinburgh is more touristy?

We saw that the Scots of Glasgow have a sense of humour -see photo below (I think maybe it's just that Glasgow has uni students too!)

We walked into a sports shop - Bev wanted to check out this game that they play over here very similar to hockey but with loose rules and funny but similar looking sticks - however we didn't find any, but were welcomed into the shop by a shop assistant( I like how they do that here - very polite) - he took one look at us in our black adidas tops with silver ferns on them, and said that we could find rugby equipment downstairs - we chuckled at his acknowledgement of our nationality and rubgy enthusiasm!

Anyway, had heaps of trouble with the last internet cafe we were at cos it only ran Windows 98 on all its computers - hello what century are we in! So we had to change and come to a different internet cafe.

Anyway, better go and do some more stuff so that we have something to write about next time :o)

Jam

Ach Lad We're in Scotland

Hey - Jam here - we're in scotland!

So thought I better update you on our travels thus far.

On Friday morning we got up early to make the journey across London on the tube(underground) to Kings Cross station to catch the Flying Scotsman to Edinburgh(overland). However, this proved to be far more stressful than we had intended as we got away later than we had hoped(I know some things never change!), but to make matters worse, we had our route all planned out and were very excited that the first tube we caught went 75% of the way to Kings Cross - however about two stations before our stop we were all kicked off the tube as another train in front of ours had broken down, therefore clogging the line! Argh! Conveniently however, this happened at a station that had access to an alternative link.

We did pretty well with making up for lost time, but never the less missed our Edinburgh train - and we got a little overwhelmed by which platform we had to catch the train on etc. We soon found out that our tickets could be used on any subsequent trip however(whew), and we found the correct platform and got on the next train half an hour later - the only drawback was that we didn't have any allocated seats - so had to "gypsy it" moving everytime someone hopped on the train with the seat number for the seats we were sitting in! Whew - crisis averted.

Anyway, so we made it to Scotland - what a beautiful place, the coast and farmland leading to Edinburgh reminds me very much of home (where I grew up - Matira). Actual Edinburgh reminds me of Dunedin - so I can see why the Scots settled there in NZ! Edinburgh Castle is so cool! - It sits on a hill overlooking the middle of town - just think Napier hill but with a Castle on it.

So we got to Edinburgh, located our hotel, dumped down our bags then walked back into town to have a look around. As we were walking we were commenting on the number of Kiwis in town(recognisable by the black adidas tops featuring silver ferns), when who do we bump into..........the very people we were in town to see - my "peeing on the field" mate Jerry Collins and Sione Lauaki - we got a photo just to prove it(not of him peeing thank goodness)! Nobody else walking around had noticed them, but took a second look after we asked them to pose for a photo!

This put us on quite a high for the rest of the afternoon - however the second funny incident for the day was when I was buying an umbrella (as it had started to rain), and I went to the counter at Marks and Spencer to pay. The retail assistant was chatting to me about the umbrella and how to open it (had some difficult button that required a degree in Umbrella operation) when I spoke - I have never caused such a scene in a department store before! There was an elderly lady being served beside me by another shop assistant and they both stopped what they were doing and whipped their heads around in my direction for a huge gawk - obviously hadn't come in contact with too many Kiwi accents in their time, I have never felt so self-conscious as they were waiting for me to talk some more! I guess I had expected it but not at the time!

The Scots are also really hard to understand, it honestly feels like some of them are talking a different language and you feel really silly trying to work out what they've said!

Anyway to finish our expedition we thought it appropriate to dine at a familiar scottish restaurant - McDonalds :o)

Onward to smallville tomorrow....Scotland

Bev here again: Ahhhhh…..day 3 and 4 how not very interesting. We pretty much spent both days not doing much. Just attempting to get jobs really. We did go for a walk to the nearby area of Parsons Green. It was posh, you could tell by the amount of real estate shops there were about half a dozen. Apparently that’s a good indication of a nice expensive area; lots of real estate shops. And on the other end of the scale is fried chicken shops. We’ve been recommended to stay away from the area with lots of fried chicken shops…..mmm fried chicken :) But I love fried chicken!

We had a quick look at some of the places for sale. If you think Auckland was bad, this place will blow your socks off, absolute daylight-white collar-whatever you wish to call it-robbery; £1.5m (about $4.3m NZ) gets you not much more than a poshly decorated letterbox with a garden barely worth owning a lawn mower for. A few nice porches driving around this area though.

We decided to also look at a few places to rent. Again, if you think Auckland was bad, this place just stuns you. We’re average Kiwi’s looking to pay about £120-150 per week, how about renting a place for £2400 PER WEEK! That’s right, that’s about $7000NZ PER WEEK!……Even $2400NZ is crazy money. Our looking at a few places bubble got the pop, big time, when we discovered that agents ask for a fee of about £70 ($200NZ) just to show you the place! No wonder people say accommodation is expensive in London!

I’ve noticed that personal space seems interesting, especially when walking down the street. You’ve got to be careful not to suddenly stop, otherwise you might get mowed down by the little old man walking his dog too close to you. The number of mums and prams walking around during the day is unreal, and getting mowed down by one is easy, especially when I’ve stopped to look into a shop window. I guess it’s because of the narrow width of the footpaths.

The amount of noise pollution is a worry. I generally rely on my ears to cross the roads at home (kids take note – do as I say, not as I do. Id be history when NZ introduces silent electric cars), but here there is so much going on, you HAVE to look both ways a few times.

Just sitting in the lounge, you hear a lot of emergency service sirens going off throughout the day. I can honestly say I’ve heard sirens go by half a dozen to a dozen times each day. Heathrow is not that far away. You can hear a plane taking off/landing every 2 minutes.

I’d hate to be a retail sales person here. In 3 trips to the local shop we’ve so far seen a lady pack a wobbly at a manager for no apparent reason (maybe just letting off steam because she had a bad day), customers being rude to staff, comment and borderline racist comments to staff.

I bought a USB pendrive from the local computer shop, it was £5.96, and I gave him £6. He said in a timid voice: ‘Im sorry I don’t have any change of 4p, but you can come back later for it’. It was like he was expecting to be burnt for not being able to give me 4 cents! I do feel sorry for the crap they have to put up with.

Marketers on the side of the street trying to hand things to you or get you to sign something is really annoying. Not only is there a lot of them, but if you make the slightest eye contact, some will ram a bit of paper at you. Jam got pulled up by a phone line selling guy, and he jumped out in front of her with an ‘excuse me, BEFORE you run away, do you own a landline?’. She fended him off with an ‘I’ve just arrived from NZ’ card. He backed off quickly.

Ah….the big city…much different from small farms :o)

Heres some late photos:

from Day 1: central London. Picadilly Circus near Soho

mmmm KFC with mashed pota....baked beans???

Yes we got bored searching for jobs, so we had to complete our gingerbread wo/men....Nice handle bar mo

Our couzzie Dee munching on her creation

Bev's view on day 2

Greetings from day 3. We finally got some decent sleep last night without waking up, indicative of my snoozing last night! Yup, I am just going to talk about day 2. It was a clear sky day(so we can vouch that London does have some), and we were told to go out and enjoy it. However we spent most of the day inside prepping our CVs and looking at a few agencies on the net.

We did manage to get up early (thanks to unadjusted body clocks at 4am), and head into Putney town centre, as Jam outlined last night. As most of you know, we love food, I especially love talking food, and so I will detail our Sainsbury supermarket experience.

We ended up walking up and down each aisle and checked out the novel goods in this different country. Two of the major things to note (1) was that half the products in the shop were labelled Sainsbury products, much like Signiture range at Foodtown (Bastics….family joke). (2) Almost everything is packaged for convenience …or maybe is packaged so you don’t have to learn how to cook! Much like when you go to New World in Hamilton or most supermarkets in Auckland, except here, its much more extreme!

Like Jam was saying, they have fresh mash potato (or frozen) ready to eat! Also Baked potato, scalloped like potato, and uncooked peeled potato. I think its great because I hate how it takes so long just for the cooking a potato process! They had a massive section of ready to eat precooked foods…mmm, they were top quality. The deli had the finest looking curries. And ham wasn’t presliced, but sliced for you at the time you want to buy it.

We found lots of turkey meat, and massively undersized fresh rainbow trout (illegal according to Lake Taupo standards) in packages!

Cadbury Favourites, as we know them, are almost in identical packages but labelled Cadbury Heros. Im guessing due to legal reasons, by the fact that a box of Nestle chocs had a label that said ‘what’s your favourite?’

Chips: ready salted, chicken, marmite…..marmite? I don’t think I want to go there after yesterday’s experience.

Long life milk. It was packaged in a Janola like bottle.

Here is some pics:

A tiny can of Coke (I think it's used for mixes), 150ml.....GULP.... what was that?!

Milk doesn't sell by the litre the new fashion way, its still in pints.....but at least labelled 1.136L for our generation.

Heres an exception to ready to eat pre-prepared food. This one you have to decorate yourself.

mmmmm......real looking bacon for tea....just like in the movies.

I also got a pic of a bottle of what we know as Jif cleaning product, but I’ll post it later. Its packaged identical, except its label was Cif!?!

Interesting to note that there are products that we used to have in NZ, but failed to sell. Such as microwavable fries, and toothpaste in a stand-up pump action bottle with the button you press to get the toothpaste out….food techies, beware, copying other countries products may end up being a flop at home :)

There also seems to be a big market for cakes. Cadbuys and many other lolly companies get into making a lot of hybrid cake bars – mix of cake and choc bar things….mmmmm…chocolate.

The last aisle felt like home, with NZ wines stacked on the shelves. I couldn’t help notice a couple of wine brands had their arm twisted by Sainsbury marketing, by having an extra word printed on the top; ‘Sainsbury’. They also sell hard liquor in the Supermarket here.

So many novel things, but a few items, such as Toblerone, had their novelty worn off at home. I did manage to find a can of V in a Dairy (Offys they call them here).

It still feels a bit surreal and doesn’t feel like we’re in London. Maybe it’s because we haven’t heard too many British voices, but when we do, we prick our ears up. And I guess that’s because no one bothers to chat when comuting. It's quite funny cos we here kids on their way to school in the morning and they are always chatting on with British accents though!

Anyway, that’s it from me. Jam’s still snoozing away next me(well was at the start of the post but since I wrote heaps she is now correcting my smelling).
Bev

PS. We lived thru 2 Saturday the 15ths of Septembers, weird eh?….but, mainly in transit.

PPS. If you’re wondering where Putney is, its close to Wimbledon.

Sleepless in ......London

Hey Guys,

Thought we'd be good kids and update our blog again with everything we got up to since we last blogged. Yesterday we went into central London on our own and didn't get lost - I thought it would be a whole lot more confusing than it is! As long as you know the name of the stations you want to get off at, you are fine! We managed to get Oyster cards, and use them correctly, and we found our way to Regent St to get our bank accounts all sorted so we had a very productive day.

We were quite stoked that they have a whole floor for Kiwi's and Aussies at HSBC for us to set up bank accounts - and there are no fees on our accounts -yay for the Brits - bloody NZ banks -robbers! one nil to the Brits! Anyway, as we left the bank we bumped into a girl I went to high school with -this world is so small!! So that brings up our count of people we have seen that we know to 3 within 48hrs of being in London! We then went for a big look around all the exciting shops, and checked out Soho, and Chinatown.

Feeling totally knackered we made our way to the tube station, but we were stopped as someone had left their backpack on the tube that we were going to hop on to. Scary! So we decided we would walk to another tube station nearby to avoid the problem - seems like there was no danger, but that was a bit of a reality check! We then came back and relaxed for the evening.

Today we again woke early - ie 4am (a bit better than the 3am yesterday morning! Maybe tomorrow we might wake at 5am?). So we got up and had some breaky, then went into Putney(shopping area quite like Ponsonby in Auckland, only about 10mins walk from Dee and Marks) and went to Sainsbury's and spent ages there just checking out all the exciting foods and different brands and unusal packaged foods that you can buy - like mashed potato!

We then bought some stuff from this place called Argos - it is so cool - you basically go there, the shop has very little stock in it, you open their giant catalogue - think hamilton phone book size, and you write down the number of the item you want, take it to the lady at the counter and pay, she gives you a receipt with a number on it and how long you need to wait, and then when your number is called, someone brings you the goods! Such a good idea, because it requires zero staff, they must have zero shoplifting, zero tidying/folding of linen etc for them - and so fast and cheap! You can buy anything from jewelery to digital cameras to furniture to duvets etc We bought some towels and a hair dryer.

We then checked out some cellphone providers on the way home and spent the afternoon looking up recruitment agents and adjusting our CV's. Tonight we decorated some ginger bread men that we had bought from Sainsbury's - we couldn't resist - they give you the sprinkles and tubes of icing and everything to decorate them with - I think it is a sign that we are already getting bored! - very tasty though! Hope to have some contact with some recruitment agents tomorrow - fingers crossed! We booked our accommodation for this weekends Edinburgh rugby world cup game to so that is really exciting - we can't wait, we go up by train on Thursday and come back on Tuesday afternoon.

And thats about us for today - will try and post some photos tomorrow (Bev's already snoring beside me here so I will get them from him tomorrow).
Jam

THE EGO HAS LANDED

Hey Guys, sorry we had hoped to have written a bit more in the countdown to our trip, but things got a little stressful towards leaving, so we didn't get a chance to write before we left - but never mind! The gist of it all is we got our house cleared, cleaned and rented - for more than what we expected, we got the renovations totally finished and we got away on time!

I thought it was appropriate to label this blog after a Robbie Williams album - since we are now living in his home land - and we have landed! Bev has below outlined the events of the last 48hrs for you :o) By the way Gill - we went to Sainsbury's yesterday and I spied the Jaffa cakes - so I will buy some when our finances are a little more certain and let you know what I think :o)

We’re in London….. FINALLY!!!!! Yesterday we arrived at 11.30am local time (Sunday 10.30pm NZ). Flying in cattle class is not fun – crammed and sweaty. After 48 hours of preparing for our trip and then actual flying, we only managed 2.5 hours of sleep. The flight from NZ to LA took 12 hours. It was amusing that the arrival card we filled in for America said “welcome to USA”, but the welcome was anything but that! However, we were treated to some chips and apples while we were in transit. But forced to watch baseball on TV. I was very impressed by the Dominos pizza advert on tv….a dessert pizza base loaded with Oreos and choc sauce :)

We had a good giggle at the flight safety video, which subtly reminded us how much cooler the seats are in business class – by saying you will find your life jacket under you’re seat in economy class – and under you foot rest in business class and then it pointed out something about the ottoman which you get in business class

Boarding the plane from LA to London was a relief, as I was getting very annoyed at the Americans – especially as we were only in transit(we had the same plane from NZ to London) yet they still made us go through customs, fill out a lengthly departure card about whether we were terrorists or not (like you would say anyway!) and get our fingerprints all in a non-air-conditioned hallway after a 12hr flight – I think animals are treated better in the US! It was a relief to see and hear British people. I couldn’t help notice that the stewards on the plane sounded a bit limp wrested!

We were kindly met by our cuzzies Dee and Mark at Heathrow, and tubed our way (with all our luggage - no small feat)to their flat in Putney Bridge (Fulham) (SW of London). I (Bev) have been most impressed about London so far, lots of cool parks/streets with old trees (reminds me of Cornwall in Hastings), and its not as crowded as I expected…… however, my opinion might change again when we enter central London today!

You certainly realise how small the world is, when you have been in the UK less than an hour and you have already seen two seperate people you were at the same halls with in Uni!! I also sat next to a Scottish guy on the plane who has recently been playing for the same Auckland Hockey Club that I did when I lived in Auckland a couple of years ago!!

You’d think, we would have slept for more than 12 hours last night to catch-up, but we kept waking up as our body clocks were telling us it was just mid afternoon!

During breakfast this morning we were excited by the fact that there was Marmite in the cupboard, but we were terribly let down by the taste and runny honey-like consistency of it….I think we will be off to the NZ shop in London to buy some real stuff today if we can find it :)

Jam again - So yesterday we arrived at Dee and Marks, went for a walk to Sainsbury's (the supermarket) - Anna it was very unsettling as you said - had no idea where anything was or what to buy - you need the whole day to just browse the shelves - so much pre packaged food as you said Gill, all your veges can be bought pre-cut and pre-peeled and pre-seasoned! (however it was fun seeing what you could buy though - everything appeared reasonably cheap like 45p but not so if you convert to NZ$ -but trying not to convert too much otherwise we might have early age heart attacks!) we then relaxed and went for a walk to a really nice park nearby on the banks of the Thames - gorgeous big old trees surrounded the park - beats the Derek Heather Park in Grandview Rd beside my parents and its pathetic sticks for trees! Today we hope to head into central london and collect our bank cards etc - so hopefully it has been set up correctly from our end in NZ! We also hope to buy oyster cards for the tube - a cheaper form of paying for the tube. It will be interesting to see how Bev and I handle the tube on our own!

Weddings and Unemployment

Hey,

Well less than two weeks to go now, so we are starting the big count down! We have now found a tenant for our house so that is very exciting - just looking for some people to buy our cars now - we have a very nice 1995 Honda Civic, immaculate condition - price on application and a gorgeous gem of a Toyota Corolla (1996) also in immaculate condition should anyone be interested - special price for you Mr (said with a strong asian accent).

I have posted photos of my friends wedding that we went to on the weekend - I'm pictured here with the lovely bride (doesn't she look gorgeous!). I am also pictured with my handsome husband as well! I was lucky enough to be asked to be a witness for her and her new husband. I also had a great time just laxing out and getting pampered with the
bride on her special day so that was really fun and girly.




































Last week Bevan and I both finished working, so we are now officially unemployed which isn't something I want to dwell on too long, especially when you consider that we might not have jobs for at the very least another month yet..........

It was sad leaving work - so many cool people, but who knows, maybe I might end up back at LIC in future........

We now have this week to get out of our house, so packing is in full swing, and I am proud to announce that Bevan is throwing away things left right and centre - a fine achievement for the world's biggest horder :o)
Packing really is a sucky job!

We are heading up to see my brother in Kaitaia this coming weekend then head to Hawkes Bay to visit Bevan's family early next week, which will then leave us with just a couple of days to practice packing our lives into a couple of suitcases (and the satisfaction that we have seen most of the North Island in the one remaining week of our time in NZ) and then we will be away.

Lots of Love
Jam and Bev