Wishing you all a very

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year

Lots of Love

Jam and Bev

Rose Tinted Glasses

Hey peopley people

It is funny how the world takes on a whole new character when one has a steady flow of income!

At long last I have a more permanent flow of income! I went for an interview two thursday's ago for a project management job, and whala, managed to somehow convince them that I was the right person for the job. I am on a fixed term contract until March at this stage, but it is highly likely my contract will be renewed if I behave myself :o)

Because of Christmas being on our doorstop, and with me having been unemployed since I left the WI (why is it that work just seems to evaporate when you need it?), I asked if it would be possible to start ASAP, and they agreed, and so I started last Tuesday! Talk about madness - my work has just moved building as well(last Friday), so things have been a bit chaotic, and then this week is the week before Christmas so I don't think much work has been done! However the beauty of starting so soon, is that they are paying me to take the Christmas period off, right up until the 2 Jan - and.....this doesn't come out of my 25 days holiday they give me a year -NICE! The Brits win that one hands down! In NZ if I started before xmas, it would prob be unpaid(excluding the Stat days of course), and I wouldn't get holidays until I had completed my first 6 months of service!

So.....now all we have to do is start planning our holidays...I have 8 days leave that I must take before March 31st - damn :o)

The weekend before last, we didn't get up to much, just went to my kiwi friends' house for a festive party(see our Christmas greeting picture above), which was quite amusing, since she lives with an aussie guy and an Indian girl (sounds a bit like one of those jokes...an english man and irish man and a ......man :o)

But what was funny was that all of the friends that came, were more-or-less the same nationality as their inviter, making it extremely easy to tell which guest knew which host. The party was heaps of fun, and I got to try some Pimms winter - a classic British Alcoholic beverage.

Sunsetting at 230pm as we travel into Waterloo

This last weekend we just laid low, (although we went on our own walking tour of central London and then went out for dinner with some kiwi's from Bevs uni hockey team in NZ on Saturday night...and don't even get me started on the stupid "service charge" the restaurant wanted to charge us, on top of our payment for the meal -grrrr!) and tried to save some money for our trip up to the Lake District for Christmas - we've booked our tickets for this coming Saturday, and all things going well, I might attempt making a Pavlova for our British hosts - however I have never made one before, and we have a gas oven, so it could be quite interesting.....! Might have to do a practice one this weekend. However, it seems that the British have tried them before -what is it with everyone trying to steal a kiwi icon! But it wouldn't be Christmas without a pav (will have to see if I can get a kiwifruit for the top of it as well).

Hundreds of Santas at Trafalgar square protesting about the environment....

...or just an excuse to dress up and have fun!

Trafalgar square with carol singers

Buckingham palace

We randomly stummble upon hundreds of Santas skating pass Big Ben


We went ice skating in Hyde Park with our flatmates a couple of Wednesday nights ago, it was just magical! Winter Christmas's seem to have a far greater atmosphere associated with them, I guess because its cold and you have to wrap up warm and you cherish hot drinks, and everyone has really awesome big decorations and christmas lights, it is a very pretty time. Whereas in NZ it is always hot and we can't really be bothered doing anything other than lazying on a beach somewhere (damn I'm starting to feel homesick writing this :o)

It's not the London Eye in the background, just a theme park ride


Hyde park winter wonderland iceskating and Christmas markets

I have been thinking about some funny contradictions here lately -one of the most interesting is the fact that London is often seen as the hub of the world, or at least one of the hubs. One of the images you always see in the news in NZ is all the movie stars and their parties, and the rich upper class in their expensive clothes and cars, and all the things you can do in London including theatres, concerts etc. I guess to the most extent, these are all true, I love that so many singers come here as part of their tours, whereas in NZ it is a bit hit or miss as to whether anyone can be bothered to venture to NZ for a tour at all, let alone more than one in Auckland. Whilst I haven't seen any famous movie stars, it seems that the newspapers here are always reporting American actors walking the red carpet at premiers to their latest movies - sort of a "they just popped in", no big deal thing - whereas when stars come to NZ they are usually there for a holiday or longterm filming projects and it is rare to hear about it, and if you do, it is a big deal.

What I find interesting about this is the prestigous image London has - famous people, rich, fancy clothing labels, hub of the world etc, but simple things like setting up a bank account can be large obstacles taking far longer than in a little back-water like NZ, and NZ has far cleaner streets, and more organised systems and procedures. So in many senses I don't think it quite fulfils that metro, moving with the times rep it has, and I'm not so fussed by the glam and movie stars - give me a coromandel beach anyday :o)

Another funny contradiction is that NZ is known for it's clean greenness, however Bev and I are both at least 5kg lighter since being here because of all the walking you do on a daily basis as part of going to work (so you don't notice you are doing it) - it is really great!

A little while ago I tried to find breadcrumbs at the supermarket here - do you think I could find any! Nope, seems that in this crazy world of convenience food, when your veges are already chopped for you in a bag, and all foods are to go, you have to make your own breadcrumbs!

Anyway thats about all from us
Lots of Love

Suzanne and Bevan

"Please, sir, I want some more."

Hey Bev here again, at the end of last week both Jam and I were counting down to unemployment again. Jam finished her job at thte WI two Fridays ago and I had been given my marching orders for the 7th of December (not in a bad way, just my contract was coming to an end). However, at the start of the week just gone I was offered a fulltime, ongoing position at my work.....the Brits love kiwis over here! (and Jam although currently unemployed, has a job interview this coming Thursday - so our fingers and toes are crossed).

This weekend we went to Rochester for the Dickens Christmas festival. Rochester is about 45 minutes away by train, south east of London. We started out wandering the small town and sampling the carnival atmosphere before checking out the 1066AD built Rochester castle (older than your nana, and your nanas nana). Of course we had to wait in line as health and safety came first limiting the number of people who could go inside. It was awesome wandering around inside a structure that was almost 1000 years old.

Rochester Castle

Inside Rochester Castle

At the top of Rochester Castle

We also checked out the Cathedral next door that was really busy as it was holding Christmas services with the influx of vistors for the festival.

Looking down on to Rochester Cathedral from Rochester Castle

We wandered the streets enjoying the festive atmosphere of brass bands, bagpipes, massive crowds, freezing temperatures, hot drinks, christmas carnival rides, roasted chestnuts (yay,finally tried some - yum), Christmas lights, cool old costumes, old story characters, and fake snow....before being entertained by a Christmas parade....very well done.

Bev covered in fake snow

Jam covered in fake snow

In a shop full of shiny battle items

Characters from Dickens' Books

Wana Kiss?

Over here you see some of the most funniest things. Last week at work I saw the finest example of a limited/vertcal job description they have over here. We took the lift to the loading bay where in the lift was a guy wearing a hardhat and hi-visibility vest sitting on an office chair pushing the lift buttons for you. And there was a sign next to him that said, only the lift operator is permitted to operate this lift. There was nothing special about the lift. He just pushed the buttons, and thats all!

I love how there is so much entertainment over here, even though it's just the simple things. At Harrods in the pizza parlor, there was Italian music playing in the background, then out of no where one of the chefs just belted out a song to the music for the crowd...very cool. We also tipped the icecream parlor guy, and as we left he started singing too...must have been happy to get tipped! Another story, we came out of a shopping centre one day, as we went in, a guy past us and when he got outside he belted out a note like a tenor! Where did that come from?!?!

This multi-nation city never stops to amuse us. Our cousin told us he saw 2 guys working as sign holders (they hold signs on a pole advertising in the streets because it's illegal to have a sandwich board sign out on the footpath in central London) and one was Asian and the other Eastern European. The Asian guy had limited english and he was trying to teach the European guy how to speak english!

The price of some fast food is something that doesn't really convert here. Dominos pizzas sell for a pricey £8 on special, thats about $20NZD converted. I tell my workmates that we get them for the equivalent of £2 onspecial and £3 normal price and they almost fall off their chairs! How do our pizza places in NZ make any money?

Anyway thats about it for this week
Lots of Love Bev and Jam