The homeless become homed

Hey guys,
Well it is with great joy and satisfaction that I can now tell you that we have a home! Yep after five weeks of being Gypsies, we have now hung up our clothes and ditched the backpacks - believe me five weeks is far to long to live out of your suitcases!!!!
Our sanity is slowly returning however, London being London still persists to drive us nutty!

Last week when Bev went to Hockey, I caught up with two of my oldest friends -and I mean playing on the rockinghorse, and exciting family trips to Cobb n Co old! Christine and Monique :o)
Again it was great catching up with some fellow kiwis -it always turns into a mock the brits session I must admit - but if we didn't I think I really would go insane! Anyway we went on a big walking tour, past my old mate Liz's house - otherwise known as Buckingham Palace, down a few famous Monopoly Streets - such as Pall Mall, Trifalgar Square, Whitehall and then out for dinner at a cheap but decent little restaurant - a fun time had by all!

Last week I wasn't working Monday and Tuesday, so I applied for heaps of jobs then I got rung up to go and work for National Women's Institute ie WI for any of you brits - yep its an old ladies magazine - target market is 50 to Dead haha! Maybe my ol mate Liz reads it??
Anyway, so my job uses about half a brain cell - although that could be contended - maybe one quarter of a brain cell....all I have to do is enter all of the castles and historic houses from the UK, from a book that has just been released into an excel spreadsheet! They are then going to write to these places to see if they would like to advertise in WI.

But I am not complaining, as one it is ££££'s and two, they think they can give me a job until the end of next week which is awesome(wow money two weeks in a row - I won't know what to do with myself!) - and three it is not helping disabled people to go toilet - long story, but some how telling a temping agency that you want administrative work means helping disabled people go toilet! Anyway..... And four, the people are really nice, and five it is quite a laugh, because all the readers are so old and they ring up for reader giveaways etc from the magazine or to tell the magazine writers that they have things wrong -haha these old people have far too much time on their hands and nothing better to do! I'm glad I don't have to deal with any of the readers!

This last weekend - yes I know while all you NZ'ers were enjoying a long weekend (Yep sux to be me) Bev and I moved into our new flat. It is a three storey building, we are on the bottom floor - so no stairs amazingly. The flat is thought to be circa 1870 - strange to be living in a house as old as my great grandparents! It also comes with all the delights of such an old house, like leaky toilets, blocked kitchen waste drains and the likes - so we are in the process of sorting out these pleasant surprises - now I understand why dad doesn't like old houses! And to think we could support a mortgage in NZ for the amount of rent we are paying for it - whew another thing not to dwell on!

It was nice finally setting up a room and unpacking our bags, we made use of that Argos store again - such fun, and the "Pound" store - where you can get 12 plastic coat hangers for £1 - pretty bloomin good. We then did our first proper shop at the supermarket, and almost couldn't carry the bags home - yep supermarket shopping totally sucks without a car - and as a result you buy little, lots, so you end up always at the supermarket - so annoying - especially when the amount of people at the supermarket is like Christmas shopping in NZ - except its like that everyday!! So if that isn't frustrating enough, imagine our blood pressure levels when the guy at the checkout decided to show how small minded and racist he is by exclaiming about four times how I was white, and Bev was pink(haha although we did find that bit a little funny - don't think asians usually get called pink!) and he couldn't get over that Bev was Chinese but not from China - honestly I could have hit this guy!! What I couldn't get though, was that London is like the most multicultural city in the world - and we can't have been the first mixed race couple this guy had ever seen - and to top it off he was black himself - so he mustn't have been adverse to racist comments himself?? What hole did this guy crawl out of? Where has he been living for the last 5o years??? And to make matters worse he took his sweet time handing over our change and receipt etc so we couldn't get out of there any faster! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Anyway...........and then to top off our high blood pressure few days, Bev went into the Bank before work today - no mean feat as the bank is nowhere near his work......and the stupid bank has sent our credit card stuff to NZ again!!! The second time in 5 weeks! Honestly!! So we still don't have credit cards!
We have noticed that the way British people deal with these blood boiling moments is to take it out then and there with the person, the manager of the shop, or anyone that's there to listen - perhaps we might be more like that when we get home!

On a funny note, at my work there are a couple of South Africans - (Yay for them for winning the rugby too - if we couldn't have it (AB's) I certainly didn't want the Brits to have it(nor would you if you had read their big gloats in the papers about how they are wonderful, and they'd be the first to defend and win the cup ever etc etc) - and especially when all they know how to do is kick! What a boring game the first half was! I did however feel a little sorry for the English when they did work out that rugby involves getting trys(shock horror what a revelation), and then the try wasn't awarded - at least the South Africans forced the English to play some good rugby - but the better team won on the day fair and square) anyway I got some lunch with one of the South Africans on Friday, and she was asking how I was finding London etc and I said I find the life fast paced but the systems so slow - ie banks, and everything, and she was like oh I find it to be the opposite - and it made me remember a South African guy from Mum and Dad's work saying that in South Africa if you post a letter it may take a week or two or three - you can never tell, whereas in NZ you can pretty much guarantee it will be to the NZ destination within two days :o) Interesting people's different views on this place.

Anyway, I feel after writing all of that my blood pressure is starting to level off :o)
We hope to head to Stonehenge this weekend so that should be exciting (with me working there is a few excess pounds to spend - YAY!) and perhaps I should start planning which theatre show we are going to see first - maybe the lion king....hmm

The weather here is starting to cool considerably - who's idea was the two winters again? Next weekend daylight savings ends here, so we go into darkness so that will be interesting!

Ok must go, would love to hear how things are at home, and what you all got up to for Labour weekend - I have realised having a blog can be convenient for you guys at home cos you can just read what we have been up to without any effort - please write to us!!!! Getting emails from home is a big excitement! I found it really hard not being home for Labour weekend, as it has such significance for being that first weekend just on the verge of summer when everyone goes to the beach and imagines what the coming summer is going to be like haha - (I hear the weather was cold and miserable - that made me feel heaps better :o) I am also very cat sick - I really miss my kitty, so if you have a cat or a dog, give it heaps of smootches from me :o)
I really need to find that elusive animal behaviour job..............

Lots of Love
Jam