• Mr X factor 5: Late summer, 2005
  
  Hello again! Has been a while since I last wrote, but perhaps some of you are still reading my last news letter (book!). It was pretty large, but as with uni essays, if it's interesting/relevant, you can write a fair bit - I hope you did find it enjoyable/interesting.
  
  Well, I have been to France now! Spent a week in Bagneres du Luchon up in the Pyrenees at the beginning of September with a combo of Kiwis, SAffers and Germans. Was great, although getting there was a bit of a mission - I rode my bike from Bayswater to Victoria station to catch the train to Gatwick airport - and I was fully loaded up - with my pack, back pack and rather large bike bag to put my bike into, once at the airport. As I went through Hyde Park someone asked me if I was going parachuting - I could have been, with about 5 parachutes! Anyway, made it to Gatwick airport, met up with 2 other mates, took my bike apart and squeezed it into my bike bag - before heading through check in. The terminal scenes were just like those European airport TV shows - apart from me and Glenn acting like idiots! - busy, queues everywhere, with all sorts of Brits wanting to escape to the continent, waiting impatiently for their boarding call. Pretty inspiring looking up on the departure screen and reading all the exotic places planes are going - Malaga, Casablanca, Vienna, Rome...
  
  Our destination was Toulouse, where upon arrival we went to the wrong luggage conveyer, and then (for some reason) couldn't find our gear. Lynn, our only French speaker past 3rd form proceeded to say in perfect French, 'We are bicycles' instead of 'we have bicycles'!! Anyway we got our gear, squashed it (3 bikes, gear for 4 people, + us four) into the Renault Espace - just - and then drove for 2 hours, south to the Pyrenees, as the clock went past midnight. We arrived to a rather luxurious, new and spacious villa in the Ski/spa/mountain biking town of Luchon, and celebrated the start of our holiday with a midnight swim. The week that followed involved copious amounts of:
  
• Croissants + lots (like heaps) of other beautiful food, which I followed up with honey on delicious croissants/fresh bread, on most occasions, as I have atendency to do!
• Mountain biking, in some seriously mountainous territory, the highlight being a ride up to Lake D'oo- very similar to the cirque glacier cut tarns in NZ's Southern Alps, apart from the large number of walkers on the track and the quaint shop and café that was alongside, after a pretty steep 2 hour trek up the mountain.
• Beautiful, quiet peaceful and stunningscenery.
• Sleeping in, and waking up to beautiful silence that you just don't get in London
• Some cards, table tennis, reading, good music (Dave Dobbyn & U2 forever!) and just general chilling and unwinding from work back in the UK.

Driving on the RHS of the road was certainly weird. I didn't do any driving, but it was still an interesting experience, often looking the wrong way initially and expecting to see traffic coming over your right shoulder, when turning, and going anti-clockwise around roundabouts.

Oh yes, I have to mention the 'Thermes'. This is the spa/sauna in the town, dating back from Roman times, and built into the rock structure of the hillside, and emitting a Rotorua-like sulphuric smell. This was a must do, and what an unforgettable experience - based around the rather large differences between European and Antipodean cultures. We rocked up all keen to indulge in the sauna, until one of the ladies on the front desk informed us that board/surf shorts weren'tallowed....No, speedos and speedos only, are the order of the day at the 'Thermes'. This stopped 2 Kiwi and 2 SAffer lads dead in their tracks, as slowly we digested what we had thought we had heard. The girls were definitely amused at our reactions, and no doubt what was to follow.

We couldn't be culturally ignorant and not go, I mean this is what you laugh about and tell stories about later on. So, we duly paid our money and went through the mildly embarrassing and humbling procedure of being 'sized up' at the speedo hire desk, before trying to put them on, which, shall we say was a very tight fitting experience. When we got into the sauna itself, we all had a laugh and proceeded to chill out and have a relaxing time. Certainly, very amusing.

After 7 days, away I headed back to a noticeably colder London than I had left. After no cricket news about the 5th test, it was a relief to hear the Aussies had just been bowled out in their first innings on the fourth day, after another Flintoff induced collapse. The Ashes looked to be England's. The next day, England almost gifted it back to theAussies as they went through a minor collapse themselves before butter-fingers Piedersen saved the day with the bat. I rode home that afternoon from work with my radio earphones on listening to Jonathan Agnew et. al. describe, wallow and savour in the regaining ofthe Ashes, for the first time since 1987. Awesome to be here (the winning parade went past my window at work, the following day!), for an amazing and quite unbelievable series, which captured the nation's imagination - sport at its best. I pre-ordered and have already received the series DVD (10+ hours!) & official Daily Telegraph Ashes summary book, for enjoying midwinter, when summer seems far away.

Work-wise, I have finally got a reasonably permanent job (till end of March), which has given me some much needed solidity. Consequently I have been able to start putting down some roots over here. I am still working at the Crown Prosecution Service, now in my third job with them. The CPS is in the middle of a rapid national restructure - about the size of the South Island's economy. I'm PA to the overall Project Manager, in a busy, interesting and varied role. I replaced a temp who I had got to know quite well. When she decided to go and live in Switzerland, she passed on my CV, lined me up for an interview, and after that, no one else had a chance! It all got sorted outa couple of days before I left for my holiday in France - which was really great. So, I got a week's break between jobs!

My boss often has task lists with about 60 items on them, and she offloads some of that to me. She is clear, organised and we get on well, so I'm pretty happy and enjoying learning lots of new things. I'm happy also with the work travel I get to do - The new Business Centres we are setting up, are all outside London, so I've had trips to Nottingham, Leeds, York so far, and will also get to Liverpool, Cardiff and Exeter while I'm in this role. I'm sure the novelty will probably wear off, but it's all pretty exciting for now. Seeing the countryside outside London is pretty therapeutic too, reminds me that I need to keep planning and doing weekend trips away to various places.

Having a permanent job has meant my dossing days have finally come to an end. I spent the first 2 weeks back after France, adjacent to Victoria Park in East London, with a Kiwi mate and his UK wife (Steve & Ellie Moe), which was very enjoyable. While there I found myself a lodging situation through the Gumtree website. I am now living in Kilburn (NW6), with a Hungarian woman called Kath, her 18 yr old son and a recently arrived girl from Sweden, who replaced a very quiet Australian (oxy-moron!?). Its temporary up to Christmas, for various reasons, but it has enabled me to finally reclaim my gear from the four parts of London that I have stayed in up till now (Kensal, Tooting, Bayswater and Stratford), and sort all my stuff out in one room. Having all my gear together in one place again really is quite useful!

My room is pretty good too. Three floors up with a large window, it came with shelves, chest of drawers, cupboard, table, and TV! So I've been enjoying getting my own room sorted. Maps of Britain and Europe have this weekend been stuck on my wall to inspire more adventures and I have several little piles of stuff accumulated to sort through.

I went to my first English football match about two weeks ago. A colleague from work is a Crystal Palace fan, and they were playing QPR at Loftus Road on a Monday night. Given Chelsea's domination of the Premier league, its current 4-5-1 defensive orientation, lack of goals, pricey and unobtainable tickets, not too mention Aston Villa's worst ever start to a season in the top flight, I was pretty happy to follow Tim McKenzie's wise advice and get along to QPR's home ground (that's his team), to watch a game in a league with a bit more loyalty and not dominated so much by ££. After side-stepping past a hooligan who was being escorted out before the match had started, I found myself in the away supporters area, so cheered for Palace - the underdogs, and a team I have a bit of a soft spot for (sorry Tim!). We were end on, just to the side of the goal, only 3 metres from the pitch - so enclosed and closer up to the action - amazing. Palace went on to win 3-1, in a pretty enjoyable match, made most interesting by the various chants that I heard while watching the game (e.g. 'Two weeks to Brighton, Two weeks to Brighton'....ad infinitum - the local grudge match coming up soon, 'Ian Dowie's red & blue, Ian Dowie's red & blue'....ad infinitum - their heroic manager, who has survived despite Palace dropping out of the Premier league last season). It was all pretty entertaining.

And so to my second visit to France, just last weekend, where I caught up my two 'Euro-girls'! Both friends from a Bible study group I used to run in Weir House at Victoria University. I met Ingrid from Scotland (now living in Paris), and Eva from Germany, in Wellington in 1998/99. I had a great weekend catching up with them after the best part of 5 years without seeing each other. Also checked out Paris too! I travelled on the Euro-star train - very central & easy (Waterloo), compared to trying to get to a Nth or Sth London airport, and only a 2.5 hour trip.

Saturday included heading to the Eiffel Tower, which was pretty inspiring and really does embarrass Auckland's Skytower for beauty. Didn't get up it (next time), but we met our guide for a bike tour here (www.fattirebiketours.com) around some of the main sights of central Paris, with historical explanations and anecdotes from each sight. We covered the tower, Champs de Mars, le Militaire ecole, Musee du Rodin, Hospital de Invalides, Place de la Concorde, a lovely lunch in the Jardin de Tuilieres, Arc du Carrousel, the Louvre forecourt, among other things. Didn't go into any of them but just got the background of each place intro - this trip very much an appetiser, for future visits. It was a beautiful Saturday - blue sky and about 22 degrees. I really liked Paris, especially variety of architecture, the various lines of symmetry in the design of the city - buildings and avenues/boulevards line up giving it a really open feel, compared to London's streets....so, no doubt I will be going back.

Other features of the weekend were using the Metro alot, developing my French lingo ('Mon francais vamieux!), hanging and watching some expert petanque players in the Jardin du Luxembourg, being able to see (from the apartment I was staying in), the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, with its spotlights zooming all over the night sky, a bit of shopping at the local market (stayed in the 15th Arrondissement), where I picked up a very warm bomber jacket/polar fleece for winter for just 10 euros (will now be able to say, 'oh, I bought that in Paris' - how cool is that!), hanging and catching up with Ingrid & Eva, and generally just catching the vibe of the city. Left on Euro star on Sunday pm - back in London 6pm - easy!

Various other things to report:

• Have booked a 10 day Christmas holiday to southern Spain with 5 others from NZ (incl. fellow Tawa-ites, Rebekah Dennison & Renee Milkop) - we are hiring a house in the Sierra Nevadas. Am flying in and out of Granada. Will be great - a white Christmas!!
• Am going to NZ v GBR for the rugby league test next weekend, at Loftus Rd, with Angela & Cuffy - go the Kiwis!
• Am still cycling to work and enjoying it - getting a fair bit cooler and darker now. Clocks change next week I think, darkness and winter will envelope us over here, and I'll probably start to settle for the warmth of the buses & tubes, until spring.
• Am going to St Mary's church near Marylebone - checkout www.stmaryslondon.com - cool website & great worship music
• Have bought my first ever umbrella! A novel thing for a Wellingtonian - the rain just comes straight down here! Umbrellas really are a great invention! For those of us who survived Y2K and SARS, now we have bird flu to contend with. No doubt it will probably beoverrated - possibly a government conspiracy to help instil fear and aid them controlling us!!? Who knows!
• Missed watching my first Bathurst since 1990, on October 9th. Didn't affect the result though - another Holden win.

All for now, enjoy New Zealand's spring if your there! Hope you are well.

Dave :)