The Mr X factor 6: December 7, 2005
Weekend fun thru Autumn + Dave turns 30!
Hello and Merry Christmas in advance! Well, I have now been here over 7 months - which seems like a fair while. Since last wrote, the main change has been that the weather has got colder and darker much earlier in the day. Daylight saving ended at the end of October, so it's not just 'grim up north', it's grim in London! Anyway, I can't complain yet - I'm only just through the first month of it! And compared to a windy Wellington winter it is comparatively calm and nice.
This 6th edition of the'Mr X-factor', is all mainly about the weekends:
Regarding the recent Rugby League slaughter of Australia (24-0!!), over a month ago, I went to the London match between the Kiwis & Great Britain. I went with mates Cuffy & Angela, + others. We led all game with some great tries, before Britain hit back in the second half, to draw close again. But then we finished them off to win convincingly. Had a great time, got some cool photos - including Stacey Jones right in front of us, nailing a sideline conversion, and one of the final scoreboard - 42-26 to us!
The following weekend was even better. I celebrated my 30th birthday on 5 November, with 15 friends, who were able to make it to a day of varied celebratory activities. By chance, these coincided with the 400th anniversary of Guy Fawkes and his motley crew getting arrested for the Gunpowder plot, foiled by a guy called Lord Monteagle, as some of you may remember, from my birthday quiz in Christchurch in 2000. Having had enough firework parties in my life, instead I organised a Monopoly tournament - in London! Well, what other game can be played in this great city?(Scotland Yard comes a close second).
I've cycled down heaps of the Monopoly streets in London, and caught the tube from the famous stations, so all the famous street names now mean so much more than they did before I got here. So, my marvellous plan took shape when I organised a venue (rent free!) - a pub near Marylebone Station, and from mid-day, we had 2 games going at the same time. These were our semi-finals, one of which I proceeded to win, having managed to gain my favourite set, the yellows (Piccadilly, Leicester Square & Coventry St) and stack it with houses.
Often you have to play about 5 games of Monopoly before you get a really exciting game which is very evenly balanced. But this game was a cracker. With the yellows being pretty much my only set, I was very vulnerable. At a crucial time I had £60 in my hand, the rest my other money invested in houses and I was sitting on Pentonville Road (the blues). Facing me as I threw were all the pinks and browns having 2-3 houses on each property. It was make or break - I threw a miracle double six to avoid them all and what would have been certain bankruptcy, and elimination from the final. Birthday luck? Who knows, but after that, people started landing on the yellows and I ended up bankrupting my sister, winning the game and progressing through to the much anticipated final.
Others weren't so lucky - Cuffy went to jail 6 times in the first few rounds of each game - unbelievable. I don't know how he made the final......Which, like the 1992 Backyard Cricket World Cup final, at the Edgecombe Oval in Linden, still needs to be played! We got the Monopoly semis underway at about 12 noon, but having begun the final, we then got sidetracked by a certain rugby match on the TV - the All Blacks v Wales at Millennium Stadium. Various other friends had arrived by now, so we packed up the Monopoly board and had some drinks and watch the All Black haka and subsequent demolition of Wales, led by Tana the Great. It wasn't exactly a close game, but always great watching the any NZ sports team, with fellow Kiwis, in foreign places. After that we went to a Chinese restaurant, and had a really nice meal - there were 15 of us - all Kiwis - a few British friends couldn't make it unfortunately. So we had a lovely time - wine, food, friends, good yarns and a really relaxing time with my 'surrogate Kiwi whanau' - some whom I have known since the early 80s, others, recent friends, and also my sister Nicola with me too! So, fond memories created, a really fun day, and I am glad I did something memorable and enjoyable, for the first birthday that I think I actually regret! 30 - mmmm...
The following weekend I went to Eastbourne on the south coast, with a large group from my church. For the previous 6 weeks, myself and some recently arrived Kiwi mates had been doing a Christianity explained course. It has actually been the most relevant & realistic explanation of the claims & experience of the Christian faith that I have ever heard. Part of the course was a weekend away, pretty much to see if the objective truth claims ofChristianity are matched by the equally important subjective experiences of the Holy Spirit, as described in the book of Acts. If you want to know what happened, email me, but in summary, it was exciting, beautiful and refreshing (Check out LIFECourse at http://www.stmaryslondon.com/).
The venue was a hotel in the retirement town of Eastbourne, where hundreds of marble white hotels, mainly for the elderly, line the waterfront. It was awfully cold, wet and windy on the Friday night, when we walked there from the train station, but quite lovely and peaceful on the sunny Sunday morning. It was a really great weekend away and we all had a great time on the Saturday night, dancing and singing karaoke. As some of you know, I can't resist the and the limelight of the karaoke microphone so I sang some of my favourite rock anthems - Pride (U2), Living on a Prayer (Bon Jovi), and Paradise City (G'n'R). Yeah, loved it!
Over two recent weekends' I have had Eva, friend from Germany that I met in NZ about 6 years ago, visiting London for the first time. One Saturday afternoon, we explored Westminster Abbey - which was amazing and inspiring. I haven't done much of the tourist trail in London for a while, so it turned out to be a fascinating day. We queued for not too long, then once inside, followed the other tourists on the designated route around the Abbey. It was quite amazing. I never realised it held such a treasure chest of tombs and monuments to so many famous Britons, as well as being the nation's church/abbey. We listened to the choir singing at the end for a while which was lovely, before heading outside for some photos and to the tourist shop for postcards et. al...
It was a cold, dull, early winter's day, so we found a nearby cafe with some nice hot soup before taking the tube to East London for an American thanksgiving meal, organised by friends. We had about 20 of us in a room having a roast dinner and a telling of the Thanksgiving story on the 384th occasion (and my first!). Was very relaxing and fun.
Once again, the next month or so will be very exciting. This weekend I go to Leeds to see a friend from NZ, Pierre - will be interesting to explore a bit up there, hopefully some biking, pub lunches and good catching up with a friend from my year at T-Coll in Christchurch in 2000.
Then on December 22nd I fly to Granada in Spain, where 6 of us from NZ will have Christmas, New Years and a 30th birthday for another one of us! We are hiring a house and will be there for about 12 days. Can't wait. Have been working hard up until recently, and with it being my first Christmas away from NZ, it will be great to be with friends, if I can't be home with family. We will hopefully do some exploring (Al Hambara & Gibraltar...) as well as getting into the outdoors and chilling out, reading, playing cards and board games and enjoying the break.
So, outside the weekends, work has been less busy of late, which has been most welcome. The main source of amusement, fun and banter has been my English colleague, Jon, who travels 2 hours EACH WAY to work each day, smokes like a chimney, has the driest sense of humour I've known, hassles me, and any other foreigners (including those north of Luton), and generally helps keep things relaxed. He has become quite irritated (he is old school, stiff upper lip, 'SNAGs are girls'...) by my regular micro pauses and stretches to keep my OOS under control, referring to them as my 'Maori war dance'!! So, with the help of my other colleagues in our office, we have been giving as good as we get, in the form of good natured, combined verbal retaliation.
One ironic thing to finish with, is that on Monday I FINALLY had my interview for my National Insurance Number - (IRD tax no.), four months after having started work - I have made many phone calls to the constantly engaged, overwhelmed and understaffed NINO number. Provided they don't find anything dodgy about me (karaoke addict?) it should get posted to me within 7 weeks.
I'll leave it there. Have a great summer or (winter!), and all the best for your weddings - James & Anita, Ben & Sisi, Tim & Hannah M. Would love to be there but won't be able to.
Blessings,
Dave
Weekend fun thru Autumn + Dave turns 30!
Hello and Merry Christmas in advance! Well, I have now been here over 7 months - which seems like a fair while. Since last wrote, the main change has been that the weather has got colder and darker much earlier in the day. Daylight saving ended at the end of October, so it's not just 'grim up north', it's grim in London! Anyway, I can't complain yet - I'm only just through the first month of it! And compared to a windy Wellington winter it is comparatively calm and nice.
This 6th edition of the'Mr X-factor', is all mainly about the weekends:
Regarding the recent Rugby League slaughter of Australia (24-0!!), over a month ago, I went to the London match between the Kiwis & Great Britain. I went with mates Cuffy & Angela, + others. We led all game with some great tries, before Britain hit back in the second half, to draw close again. But then we finished them off to win convincingly. Had a great time, got some cool photos - including Stacey Jones right in front of us, nailing a sideline conversion, and one of the final scoreboard - 42-26 to us!
The following weekend was even better. I celebrated my 30th birthday on 5 November, with 15 friends, who were able to make it to a day of varied celebratory activities. By chance, these coincided with the 400th anniversary of Guy Fawkes and his motley crew getting arrested for the Gunpowder plot, foiled by a guy called Lord Monteagle, as some of you may remember, from my birthday quiz in Christchurch in 2000. Having had enough firework parties in my life, instead I organised a Monopoly tournament - in London! Well, what other game can be played in this great city?(Scotland Yard comes a close second).
I've cycled down heaps of the Monopoly streets in London, and caught the tube from the famous stations, so all the famous street names now mean so much more than they did before I got here. So, my marvellous plan took shape when I organised a venue (rent free!) - a pub near Marylebone Station, and from mid-day, we had 2 games going at the same time. These were our semi-finals, one of which I proceeded to win, having managed to gain my favourite set, the yellows (Piccadilly, Leicester Square & Coventry St) and stack it with houses.
Often you have to play about 5 games of Monopoly before you get a really exciting game which is very evenly balanced. But this game was a cracker. With the yellows being pretty much my only set, I was very vulnerable. At a crucial time I had £60 in my hand, the rest my other money invested in houses and I was sitting on Pentonville Road (the blues). Facing me as I threw were all the pinks and browns having 2-3 houses on each property. It was make or break - I threw a miracle double six to avoid them all and what would have been certain bankruptcy, and elimination from the final. Birthday luck? Who knows, but after that, people started landing on the yellows and I ended up bankrupting my sister, winning the game and progressing through to the much anticipated final.
Others weren't so lucky - Cuffy went to jail 6 times in the first few rounds of each game - unbelievable. I don't know how he made the final......Which, like the 1992 Backyard Cricket World Cup final, at the Edgecombe Oval in Linden, still needs to be played! We got the Monopoly semis underway at about 12 noon, but having begun the final, we then got sidetracked by a certain rugby match on the TV - the All Blacks v Wales at Millennium Stadium. Various other friends had arrived by now, so we packed up the Monopoly board and had some drinks and watch the All Black haka and subsequent demolition of Wales, led by Tana the Great. It wasn't exactly a close game, but always great watching the any NZ sports team, with fellow Kiwis, in foreign places. After that we went to a Chinese restaurant, and had a really nice meal - there were 15 of us - all Kiwis - a few British friends couldn't make it unfortunately. So we had a lovely time - wine, food, friends, good yarns and a really relaxing time with my 'surrogate Kiwi whanau' - some whom I have known since the early 80s, others, recent friends, and also my sister Nicola with me too! So, fond memories created, a really fun day, and I am glad I did something memorable and enjoyable, for the first birthday that I think I actually regret! 30 - mmmm...
The following weekend I went to Eastbourne on the south coast, with a large group from my church. For the previous 6 weeks, myself and some recently arrived Kiwi mates had been doing a Christianity explained course. It has actually been the most relevant & realistic explanation of the claims & experience of the Christian faith that I have ever heard. Part of the course was a weekend away, pretty much to see if the objective truth claims ofChristianity are matched by the equally important subjective experiences of the Holy Spirit, as described in the book of Acts. If you want to know what happened, email me, but in summary, it was exciting, beautiful and refreshing (Check out LIFECourse at http://www.stmaryslondon.com/).
The venue was a hotel in the retirement town of Eastbourne, where hundreds of marble white hotels, mainly for the elderly, line the waterfront. It was awfully cold, wet and windy on the Friday night, when we walked there from the train station, but quite lovely and peaceful on the sunny Sunday morning. It was a really great weekend away and we all had a great time on the Saturday night, dancing and singing karaoke. As some of you know, I can't resist the and the limelight of the karaoke microphone so I sang some of my favourite rock anthems - Pride (U2), Living on a Prayer (Bon Jovi), and Paradise City (G'n'R). Yeah, loved it!
Over two recent weekends' I have had Eva, friend from Germany that I met in NZ about 6 years ago, visiting London for the first time. One Saturday afternoon, we explored Westminster Abbey - which was amazing and inspiring. I haven't done much of the tourist trail in London for a while, so it turned out to be a fascinating day. We queued for not too long, then once inside, followed the other tourists on the designated route around the Abbey. It was quite amazing. I never realised it held such a treasure chest of tombs and monuments to so many famous Britons, as well as being the nation's church/abbey. We listened to the choir singing at the end for a while which was lovely, before heading outside for some photos and to the tourist shop for postcards et. al...
It was a cold, dull, early winter's day, so we found a nearby cafe with some nice hot soup before taking the tube to East London for an American thanksgiving meal, organised by friends. We had about 20 of us in a room having a roast dinner and a telling of the Thanksgiving story on the 384th occasion (and my first!). Was very relaxing and fun.
Once again, the next month or so will be very exciting. This weekend I go to Leeds to see a friend from NZ, Pierre - will be interesting to explore a bit up there, hopefully some biking, pub lunches and good catching up with a friend from my year at T-Coll in Christchurch in 2000.
Then on December 22nd I fly to Granada in Spain, where 6 of us from NZ will have Christmas, New Years and a 30th birthday for another one of us! We are hiring a house and will be there for about 12 days. Can't wait. Have been working hard up until recently, and with it being my first Christmas away from NZ, it will be great to be with friends, if I can't be home with family. We will hopefully do some exploring (Al Hambara & Gibraltar...) as well as getting into the outdoors and chilling out, reading, playing cards and board games and enjoying the break.
So, outside the weekends, work has been less busy of late, which has been most welcome. The main source of amusement, fun and banter has been my English colleague, Jon, who travels 2 hours EACH WAY to work each day, smokes like a chimney, has the driest sense of humour I've known, hassles me, and any other foreigners (including those north of Luton), and generally helps keep things relaxed. He has become quite irritated (he is old school, stiff upper lip, 'SNAGs are girls'...) by my regular micro pauses and stretches to keep my OOS under control, referring to them as my 'Maori war dance'!! So, with the help of my other colleagues in our office, we have been giving as good as we get, in the form of good natured, combined verbal retaliation.
One ironic thing to finish with, is that on Monday I FINALLY had my interview for my National Insurance Number - (IRD tax no.), four months after having started work - I have made many phone calls to the constantly engaged, overwhelmed and understaffed NINO number. Provided they don't find anything dodgy about me (karaoke addict?) it should get posted to me within 7 weeks.
I'll leave it there. Have a great summer or (winter!), and all the best for your weddings - James & Anita, Ben & Sisi, Tim & Hannah M. Would love to be there but won't be able to.
Blessings,
Dave
posted by MrXfactor at
5:45 AM
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