Famous Footsteps

Hey guys,

This last week has been an incredibly busy one for me, organising four events in two weeks certainly keeps one out of mischief! I was in Birmingham on Tues/Wednesday for an event, and I am back there again tomorrow and Wednesday this week. This last weekend Bev had hockey on Saturday, so I hung out with Christine and Monique, as it is Moniques last month here before she goes home to NZ - so jealous......... We had heaps of fun, we banged into each other on the dodgems and then ten pin bowled, followed by a yummy dinner.

These Russells are good at sniffing out the best food spots in the west end - when Bev and I go, we always get really average, expensive food!

On Sunday we decided that we would all go somewhere - initially we thought Canterbury, but we were in the end swayed by Oxford. So off we went! (Via Paddinton Station - hence Bev's new friend :o)

Oxford is only an hours train ride North West of London, so not too taxing.

It is extremely beautiful, and full of really cool old buildings as part of the university. Pretty cool to hang out in the same city (130,000 people) as famous writers once did such as Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland), C.S Lewis and J R Tolkien -not to mention some famous animal behaviourists. I didn't think I would ever be so interested in who once lived in a place, but in hindsight, the only real people that NZ has like that is Katherine Mansfield or perhaps Janet Frame, and they are pretty lame in comparison. Going to Oxford made me think about that PhD I am still keen to do...............! How cool would it be to have an Oxford doctorate under Marian Dawkins....swoon.

Christ Church College

Looking down the main street

Anyway that is really all we have been up to in the last week, we are just counting down now until our Egypt trip at Easter - can't wait! Only three weeks to go! Next week Bev and I have been married three years! Can you believe how fast time goes! And the following weekend we will have been here Six months whew! Can't wait until the weather fines up - we have had some nice sunny days recently, it would just be nice if we could turn up the heat! Seems weird that there are daffidols around in March - my brain is still trying to work out what season and what month it is by all of these strange weather patterns. Funny how you associate certain seasons with certain events ie daffidols mean it is nearly Bev's birthday, yet his birthday is in August!


Recently I have been thinking about how travelling really opens your eyes to the world. I know this sounds extremely cliched, and it is hard to explain to people who have never been further than Australia.


But you soon learn things about yourself as a kiwi, and your nature, and how the world is a big place full of problems and poverty which we have no idea about living in NZ. It has made me think more about the things I buy, and want for, but don't really need. It makes you think about corruption, poverty and how the western world controls a lot of these situations, yet has the ability to change them in a second - but doesn't.


In New Zealand this is further from our sight, as we don't walk past beggars in our daily automation to work, we don't see boy racers who drive ferraris (yep that's my kinda boyracer - no shitty nissan pulsars with big exhausts here!). Here on a daily basis you see the people who can afford ferraris and you see people who can't afford their next meal or a place to sleep. I think often we feel that we are immune or exempt from doing anything about these poor people, but by doing nothing, we are as bad as the next person. What is the ultimate purpose of life? Do we just work really hard and get to a salary of $200K and then say we have achieved everything we have always wanted to achieve? Do we pay off our house mortgage at the age of 60 and think, wow thats my life fulfilled - I owe nothing. Do these dreams sound empty to anyone else?

Anyway hope that got you all thinking

Until next time

Jam and Bev