It's good to be a Kiwi Mate

Hey guys,

Been a while since our last blog, but we have been busy recovering from our event overload! After Paris it was Waitangi week. On the Wednesday night we went out to the Kiwi kitchen for a good kiwi night out. Great food and sing alongs to some kiwi classic songs. For food: starters of green lipped mussels, mains of NZ Lamb shank on Kumera chips, and finally hokey pokey icecream. It was sooooo good having a kiwi tucker again...mmm kumera chips. The Music was a one man band but he played some fantasic classics; From Dave Dobyn, Herbs, Crowded house, to tetormai nga iwi and every now and then pulling out some "cheer bro's", and "too meckie's" for fun.

Waitangi weekend came, and the weather was fantastic and oddly warm - at the same time last year they apparently had snow storms (we still haven't seen snow here!). I had hockey in the morning, but that was a waste of time. The other team and half our team were too scared to play on a sand turf with a little frost on it (naturally gritted with sand!). I was so pissed off....maybe it's my kiwi "she'll be right mate" attitude.

Anyway, Jam and I decided we would go for a a visit to China town to check out the lantern decorations for Chinese New Years' celebrations, and celebrate with a yum feed of yumcha(chinese brunch) and then we were off to Westminster Parliament Square to check out the tail end of the Waitangi day pub crawl. Thousands of kiwis celebrated Waitangi day, a tradition started by 2 Hamiltonions 30 years ago, consisting of a pub crawl via the Circle tube line. I kept tabs through out the day on the central London transport system, watching thousands of kiwis cause major delays and shutdown stations for the crawl - whoa ho.

Parliament Square was where thousands of kiwis did the haka, although we missed it, we kept on bumping into other kiwis we knew from uni and school etc. It was fantasic seeing kiwis dressed for the occasion; beige, stubbies, as cows, anything with a kiwi icon was there. The best dressed in my opinion was a couple of guys dressed in NZ police uniforms. Made us do a double take! There were kiwis pulling out some old school games like bull rush and handball.

Some Friesian's

A very pissed Lou :o)

Um, the black cocks......

My boss came back from NZ from a 3 week holiday and she pointed out somethings that we definitely notice about food and coffee in NZ vs here. Everywhere she went in NZ she got perfect food and coffee, but compared to here it is a massive hit and miss exercise...very hard to find good coffee here, and good food (at a price you are willing to pay!).

Last weekend I decided to surprise Jam with a trip to Brighton, 45min by train from London. It was a beautiful clear blue day, but quite cold - quite like the days we get in August/Sept in NZ. We enjoyed a relaxing day, looking at the Royal Pavillion (a lavish, over-the-top Chinese/Indian styled castle built by King George), and then heading down to the pebble beach, and looking around the Pier that Brighton is famous for.

It is funny how beaches are so a part of us as Kiwis that you don't realise that after 5 months of not having been to a beach, how much you've missed it! Just the sounds of the seagulls made us feel homesick! We were surprised by the size of the pier, and the amusement park that they have on it! The beach was quite European in feel because there was the beach, then the road, then old apartment buildings on the other side of the road - quite like you see in the pictures of spain etc

Outside the Royal Pavillion at Brighton

The pebble beach at Brighton - looking down from the Pier

Brighton Pier

The Pier from the beach

This weekend, I worked on Saturday, then Jam and I went into Putney to do some shopping. We went and saw Jumper at the movies, and then came home and watched the France vs England 6 Nations match - we were voting for France - esp since the AB's couldn't beat the French in a quarter final -we didnt want the English to beat them, however we are now even more shame faced..........!

We'd never thought we'd crack and spend almost $50 on a meal of Dominos pizza (Takeaway Pizza is really expensive here!). Considering back at home the equvalent meal would have been about $22. Our British flatmates can't belive that a pizza at Dominos at best is £2 at home. However, it was better quality pizza -ie more toppings - but still we could have gone to the supermarket and bought more toppings for it, and still got it cheaper in NZ!

Anyway Laters

Bev and Jam

Bonjour

Bonjour!

As promised, here is the blog about our trip to Paris - city of lights (our first trip to Europe - very exciting)

We had the most magical trip to Paris, it is the most amazing place - we totally loved it!

On Thursday (last week) we both left work after lunch, and made our way to King's Cross -St Pancras Station (the Eurostar moved there in November from Waterloo Station). We meet up with our tour group and left at 5.30pm. The trip was fast, (annoyingly so for your ear pressure), and it was dark outside so unfortuantely we couldn't see anything. Paris is an hour ahead in time, so we didn't arrive until 8.45pm French time.

We had a bus pick us up from the Gare du Nord station, (it was freezing and trying to rain), we had a little bit of a tour of the city at night on our way to our hotel. We then checked into our hotel. Since we hadn't had any dinner, Bev and I went looking for some dinner, however we were staying in the middle of the business district, so there wasn't any food places open, so we just went back to our hotel and had microwaved lasagne from the bar. However, on our way back to the Hotel, it clocked on the hour, and we were able to see the famous light show on the Eiffel tower - so pretty! Our first experience of a Frenchman was also at this time.

We had heard heaps of stories of the french not paying you any attention unless you can speak french (which we couldn't) so we were prepared for rudeness, however, this french guy saw us standing out in the rain, on a cold night watching the light show and had a big goofy grin on his face and said something to us in french that went "blah blah blah vista", followed by another big grin - I worked out after he had walked away (and we had only given him a blank but friendly smile) that he must have said what a lovely view (hence the vista bit) - ie very friendly conversation for a stranger, let alone a frenchman :o)

On Friday morning we set out from our hotel at 9.30am (after a delicious french breakfast involving cheese, fresh bread, crepes and cereal - a nice change from the usual bacon and eggs served at hotels) on the tour bus, and did a tour of the city, learning some history about the city and the fabulous monuments within it. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain, but this did little to dampen our high spirits at being in Paris! We got some wet pictures of the Eiffel tower,

Jam at the Eiffel Tower - rainy day

went round the giant roundabout at the base of the Arc de Triomphe (and just as our tour guide was telling us no one has insurance going round the roundabout, we nearly crashed twice!) and then went on a quick tour of a perfume factory - I think our guide gets commission for taking us there! Didn't buy anything though, as it was all quite expensive. We then went with another Kiwi couple (from Napier of all places, and they know a few of the same people that Bev knows - crazy small world!) and our guide - yep we had our guide all to ourselves to a big deparment store called Lafayettes - it has the most gorgeous dome ceiling (see pictures) and is about 9 stories high! We had the most fantastic lunch at the department store -the french really know how to do food - a big difference to what we have found in London - where you pay heaps for something that tastes extremely average!

The dome ceiling at Lafayettes (the department store)

We bought some souvenirs, then us and the kiwi couple headed to the Louvre, buying yummy french chocolate and macroons on the way there. The Louvre was pretty cool, saw the Mona Lisa - which was I must say was pretty disappointing - very small, and behind a pane of glass, and cordoned off! Grr but the funny thing was it said no photography, but everyone was taking photos, however it wasn't until Bev decided to take a photo of the people taking photos that he got in trouble for photography! :o)

Bev with the Mona Lisa at the Louvre

Us outside the Louvre

After the Louvre, we walked down the Seine river (it had stopped raining by this stage thank goodness),

The Seine River

and headed towards the Latin Quarter to meet up with our tour guide again for a traditional french dinner. It was another fantastic meal (minus the snails which were all wrong - however I did eat one, and Bev ate 5 so a good effort).

Snails for dinner anyone??

We then went to a french supermarket which was fun, then meandered to the Cabaret to meet back up with our guide and some of the others from our tour group. The cabaret was good, a little too risque for my liking, but an experience nonetheless. On the way home we mastered use of the Metro, so we were very proud of ourselves.

Some of our tour group after the Cabaret

On Saturday we got up lateish (since the Cabaret hadn't started until 9.30pm - we were pretty knackered) to an absolutely beautiful clear blue sky day. We headed straight to the Eiffel tour on the Metro to try and beat the crowds. We decided to walk up the Eiffel tour, all 668 steps of it, as it was cheaper, further enhanced the experience and most of all had a far shorter queue.

With the day being so clear, the views were magnificent, totally worth our money spent. However the experience was slightly dampened by the annoying Gypsy women who scout around tourist trying to get money from you! Grrrrr - they all ask if you speak English, so Bev took to replying to them in Chinese - that got rid of the :o) They also had scary army officers carrying semi automatic guns protecting the Eiffel tower! Wouldn't wana piss these guys off!

A far nicer day to have your photo taken with the Eiffel tower

Us at the very top of the Eiffel tower, and the fantastic view below

We then headed to the Notre Dame Cathedral, having lunch at a little cafe opposite it first (I had a very delicious french toasted sammy), then heading inside for a looksy.

Bev made a new friend at the Cafe (a quirky waiter)

The Notre Dame Cathedral (on the left) and the Seine River

We then met up with a friend of Bevs from Uni, Pete, and headed with him to Sacre Coeur (a gorgeous Roman Catholic Church). The area surrounding the Sacre Coeur is gorgeous too as the streets are cobbled, and the shops are quaint boutiques - very artsy fartsy but cool. Some famous names have lived in this area including Monet and Picasso - so that is pretty cool too.

A collage of the words "I love you" written in all different languages

Sacre Coeur (Roman Catholic Church)

We then went to a cafe and had a coffee,

Cheesy photo of us at the cafe

and then headed to a Fondue restaurant (actually a swiss invention but obviously adopted by the French at some point- which was heaps of fun - they give you baby bottles to drink your wine out of, and the restaurant was so small that all the tables were in one long line on each wall with no gaps for people to get to the seats between the table and the wall, so patrons have to stand on the chairs and jump over the table to get to these seats! The owners were very quirky and it was extremely fun.

Bev drinking out of his baby bottle of wine

Bevs friend Pete then took us to the Arc de Triomphe to get some quick photos,

Us at the Arc de Triomphe(the giant roundabout goes around its base - cars on the roundabout have to give way to cars entering the roundabout - hence the high crash rate!)

We then headed down the Champs Elysees to check out how the others live - where large labels such as Gucci etc have stores. We then said goodbye to Pete and headed back to our hotel.

On Sunday morning, we got up and headed to the Gare du Nord station, to head back to stinky ol' London! It was so hard coming home to London, because once we pulled in, it wasn't the usual Auckland airport affair of putting your suitcases in the boot of the car and then driving past the city, farmland home.

Instead, it was grab your suitcase, walk up and down stairs to the tube, find an alternative path to get home because the normal one is closed for repairs, fend off millions of people, get to your stop, catch a bus (we waited 20mins because there was some delay - the longest we have waited yet!) then by the time we got home, all the supermarkets were closed so we couldn't get our weekly groceries............all we wanted to do was hop back on the eurostar to Paris- it is such a cool place. And the fact that they speak another language made it all the more endearing - I found it really funny trying to order a pastry, as I only know a few words in french (and have a bad kiwi accent too) and I had the same thing happen to me as I had in Scotland where you say something, and the other people in line whip their heads round to have a gawk at this strange alien creature who talks with a funny accent :o)

A funny french poster - advertising the eurostar to London (Londres)
Perhaps a symbol of the how the French view the English? :o)

All in all an excellent trip which has made us very eager for the next one!

Lots of Love

Jam and Bev