The Mr X factor 9: August 23, 2006

Summer fun!! June - August '06.

Hi all

Well, Def Leppard went off!! Went to see them at the Hammersmith Apollo, mid-June, with Cuffy, Nics & Angela. It was metal heaven: black T-shirts, '80s long hair, and black jeans everywhere - I bought my own Def Leppard T-shirt too! They played all their classics off their legendary Hysteria album of the late '80s - the first cassette I ever bought! Sounded fantastic, and yes, the one arm drummer is still in the band!

In late June, my Godmother, Cathy, arrived from Auckland for a holiday. Nics and I went to dinner with her and our 'surrogate aunt & uncle' over here, Anne & her partner Colin. It was pretty special to see a dear family friend over here.

And, then there was the World Cup, which = heartbreak for England. It was pretty impossible to ignore over here - 3 games everyday - fantastic. Also made more intriguing with my inclusion in Ben Fountain's picking competition from NZ! I managed to watch heaps of games and for all the England matches, get to the pub or our church (which said BYO beers, & organised a massive screen to project the game onto).

Over the month, the radio talkback & TV was filled with it all sorts of opinions about England's form in particular, and essentially they were quite poor (tiredness, the heat, the WAGs - wives & girlfriends - all of the above..., who knows) and it all ended in tears against Portugal on penalties, as you could have predicted. I thought only Owen Hargreaves, Joe Cole, Aaron Lennon & Ashley Cole played consistently well for England. Best game? - Italy v Germany. Was glad to see Italy win - what was Zidane thinking?

Headed to Cambridge in early July, for a weekend with Paul & Becs Roper-Gee. We started with morning tea, and a good chin-wag at the Orchard Cafe - lovely picturesque garden scene, filled with relaxing slopey deck chairs & tables, developed for Cambridge students to R&R a hundred or so years ago. Nice!

That afternoon we went to Ely, in 'the Fens', for a look around the Cathedral & town. It was here that I got a text from my Dad in NZ, saying that baby No.3 was on the way for my sister Wendy & her hubby Murray. Ben Malcolm Cameron was born some time after and I am now the proud uncle to 3 beautiful little kids - Adam, Amelia, Ben - congrats W&M!!

After a pub meal and couple of pints alongside the 'River Great Ouse', the big entertainment for the night in Ely was the Ely folk festival, which had some good live music to listen to and was a pretty cool time.

It all got a bit more formal though, 3 days later, when I went to the Queen's Garden Party at Buckingham Palace! Angela, my kiwi mate who works in NZ House over here, put us into the ballot for 2 of the 100 tickets that get allocated to NZers every year, and we were successful! A few weeks prior to it I got my official invite from Her Majesty (as you do), and the day was beautifully blue and warm as I met Angela and her friend Kara, had some photos taken of us in our dressed up Garden Party gear atop New Zealand House - stunning 360 degree views of London - before hailing a taxi, and heading down the Mall to the Palace.

After clearing security we went in through the front entrance, and walked towards the archway leading us through to the inner sanctum - just as we got near, two guards did their 20 yard march to stretch their legs, and we looked around to see tourists staring at us enviously through the iron fences that plebs like us rarely get past! We walked into another large courtyard, out of view of the public now, and then across a really long corridor - inside the Palace itself, with red carpet, gold covered furniture, and all sorts of portrait paintings of monarchs of the past and their families - lots of bling!

After filing past all this we made it out to the backyard - and what a backyard the Queen has! Immediately in front of us was a beautiful lawn about the size of a football field, pretty busy with people, taking a stroll, milling about, chatting and enjoying the sunshine. Down the left hand side of the lawn was a hundred yard row of marquees (huge, but not Pakistani - couldn't resist that for you cricket fans!), all serving afternoon tea - sandwiches, chocolate biscuits, the Queen's tea and lemonade. Lots of people were queuing up for that. We joined them.

In front of these serving tents there were hundreds of people sitting at the tables, eating and chatting with each other. On the right side of the lawn there were a couple of smaller tents, reserved for serving tea to the Queen & her entourage, as well as another one for serving the invited diplomats. The lovely sounds of four bands, located at each corner of the large lawn, and playing one after the other, filled the air and added to the rather smashing atmosphere!

We ended up strolling across the lawn and found a some chairs to sit on near the decently large Palace pond. All in all, there must have been about between 4-5000 people there. We had our lemonade, & bites to eat (scrumptious) and then went for a walk around the rest beautiful of the grounds - which stretch out towards Hyde Park corner and Belgravia/Lower Grovesnor Place. While strolling around the estate, it struck me how great this place would be for playing a mass game of go-home-stay-home! And I also wondered if Charles had ever kicked a football around the back lawn with William and Harry!

Actually, I could have asked him this, because about half an hour later I was a metre from the future King of England! He and his wife Camilla were milling meeting various people and talking to some of them. All quite exciting though!

It all came to an end after 6pm, when everyone started filing out the way they had come in - through the Palace for one last time (probably!) and out the front gates again. There ended an exhilarating and quite unforgettable afternoon.

The following weekend I went to the 'Toast New Zealand' wine, beer, food and culture festival, held at Regents Park. This was quite different! I went to this with Hamish Stockwell - Wgtn mate from our 2002 cricket trip to Oz - recently arrived from NZ. This a was really cool, with the headline act being NZ music legend, Dave Dobbyn, belting out his classics, to 4-5000 expat Kiwis, wallowing in an afternoon of Kiwi culture.

It was lovely to indulge in some Monteiths & Macs Gold beers, as well as the L&P & K-bars - mmmm!! The other lasting memory was watching blow-up kiwis and sheep being crowd-surfed at the mainstage as Dobbyn played Slice of Heaven, Loyal and all the rest of his great songs. Kai pai New Zealand!!

Two weeks later, I was off to Cardiff, for work - well, sort of. It was the annual Crown Prosecution Service Sports Day, held for its staff from all around the country. This was held on the Friday, so I trained up on the Thursday night, had 2 nights in a hotel and one in a backpackers, using the weekend to explore Cardiff. The sports day was pretty cool - just like a school athletics day - with heaps of other sports going on as well- 5 aside football, swimming, rounders, tennis, darts, pool, dominoes, quiz - all sorts!

For some of us from our team, the first event was actually getting to the venue - this turned out to be a complete nightmare - we must have come last in that!! Essentially, the venue was not just 1 mile out of town as we thought, but 5 miles NE of the city - after driving around aimlessly for an hour and asking for lots of help. The problem was that every large recreational building/sports venue in Cardiff starts with 'N.W.I.C...' so we got the wrong one, and two out of our three cars had 'sat nav', but our one didn't and we got split up at the lights - it went all pear-shaped from there!

This meant we got there late, and I missed my pool tournament. After following our football team, by the end of the day we were all pretty knackered & ready for the quiz, in the bar - which seemed to host a few competitions all day! Everyone congregated and various people hobbled in with injuries from perhaps their only sporting venture since last year's sports day! We started poorly in the quiz, finishing mid-table (there's always next year!), but it rounded off a fun day's sports, and I also got to meet various colleagues from around the country, that I email or talk to on the phone quite regularly in my job.

Sampled the Cardiff night life in the evenings - it all revolves around the massive Millennium Stadium in the city centre - you can never not see it, wherever you are - feels like it has fallen out of the sky and landed smack in the middle of the city. It crossed my mind that I do need to get back here for a rugby test some time - must be amazing inside. On the Saturday I went to to the Walkabout pub in the morning to watch the Bledisloe Cup rugby game - the mighty All Blacks beat the Aussies again - although it was close this game: 13-9. I joined some Kiwis for it and Xavier Rush was also there!

In the afternoon I checked out Cardiff Castle and went on the tour there. On Sunday morning I went down to Cardiff Bay (really interesting to explore) to see some of the tourist attractions on the redeveloped waterfront, quite different now from it's heyday when it was the coal shipping capital of the world. It was really nice to be next to the sea and feel the breeze in the air.

I have been busy! Because the following weekend I went out to Ashford in Kent to visit Kiwi friends Tony & Rachel Yung, over here this year from NZ. I used to teach with Tony at Tawa College, so we had lots of TC gossip to catch up on, and also notes to compare on life over here. On the Sunday we visited Leeds Castle (very nearby, not up north!). This was advertised as 'the finest castle in England', and it didn't disappoint - amazing grounds, a huge moat, magnificent castle - with stunning interior, set out as it would have been - lots of paintings, sculptures etc... - really brilliant.

Also, visited the Cabinet War Rooms, in Westminster, the other weekend, with some friends from my church home group. These also have a museum dedicated to the life of Winston Churchill. Both, absolutely fascinating & a must see, I reckon.

As well as all this there have been quite a few summer BBQs and parties to go to - catch up meals at a restaurant in Brick Lane, house warming parties, BBQs (although the heat has gone out of summer already - not much over 20 degrees now), going away parties for friends going downunder for a month, drinks at bars around Bank station after work... all sorts of parties! As one friend put it - 'my social life hasn't been this good since university!!'

As well as this, about 3 weeks ago, an ex-flatmate of mine, Rob Edgecombe arrived from NZ to do his OE over here. He got through his jetlag admirably, & spent the first 10 days dossing at my spacious (not!) flat. For those of you who know Rob, it was a great excuse to go and see Jimmy Barnes in concert (Rob's 4th time seeing the Aussie rock legend - my first).

Finally, three things to finish with:

1. From this Friday I have a week off work and am going to the Austria Alps. I won a trip there in a travel magazine competition - return tickets by coach & 3 nights accommodation for 2, at a place in the central Austrian Alps - Bad Gastein - http://www.euro-youth-hotel.at/ (I think). Can't wait - work has been mad for 3 weeks and I am due a break. Will be going with my flatmate & NZ mate, Cuffy, so we are both looking forward to some mountain air, mountain biking, white-water rafting, day trips to Venice &/or Salzburg, a chance to explore another bit of Europe & chill out!


2. Am going to an All Blacks test - my first ever - in November - actually am going to two! England at Twickenham on Nov 4 & then Wales at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, on Nov 25. Both should be pretty awesome experiences.


3. And, I am coming home next March/April - for 3 weeks - get the cards tournament in the diary Dunc! Booking this trip has made me thing about home a bit. When it comes around, I will be so excited to come back to Aotearoa, friends & whanau, for a few weeks. I arrive in NZ on 30 March, and leave 20 April - with a 3 day stop over in Hong Kong on the way back to the UK.

That's all for now. Hope are well, wherever you are. God bless :)

The Mr X factor 8: May 31, 2006

Spring!! March, April, May '06

Hi all! No I haven't disappeared off the planet - just been busy. Lots of stuff to tell you so, get a mug!

I last emailed in mid-February. Early March, my sister Nicola and I went out to Essex to visit some friends of my Mum's parents. We went to Thaxted, near Stansted Airport (in fact right in the flight path of the proposed airport extension) for the weekend and had a great time. Essentially, it seems that Mum and Dad have lots of friends in the UK from when they lived here in the '70s, who are willing to see us and lay on a great stay - B&B accommodation, farm tour, a lovely roast dinner in their dining hall, which resembled that of a dining hall for a king - long ornately decorated hall (with one display of metal ornaments found my metal detectors on their farm, dating back Roman times!), not to mention the chance to get to know our family friends and chat about all sorts of things.

Soon after that follow our church conference, called Refresh, which did exactly that. I took a day off work for the 3-day event and started to think bigger picture stuff, with a really good speaker from Ohio Vineyard Church, as well as our local staff. One of my best weekends here so far.

I have generally had weekend trips planned every 2nd weekend for most of this year, so a fortnight later I went to Cambridge, again with Nicola, to see recently arrived friends from Christchurch, Paul & Becs Roper-Gee (I use to flat with Paul in Chch, as did Nics). We took the train out & Paul & Becs met us, and Paul and I cycled into town, bought the compulsory patch for my Scout blanket, had some lunch and then set about touring some of the must-see places.

Cambridge is lovely, a bit less busy & perhaps not as popular as Oxford so it was very nice to cruise around. We went to Kings College Chapel, which had the best stained glass paintings I have ever seen (removed for WWII bombings then replaced in tact), went for a walk around the grounds and on the banks of the lovely River Cam, imagined being student at such a prestigious Uni (Si Perris you must be loving it at Oxford!), watching the punting, went up the tower of Great St Mary's church which was where key Christian Reformationists were burnt at the stake in the 16th century, on failure to recant of their revolutionary beliefs. This tower had a great 360-degree view of the city, which was cool - Paul & Becs pointed out various landmarks. After that we cycled home along the walking/cycling paths adjacent to the River Cam and through 'Jesus Green' - almost everything old in Cambridge has names like this - quite cool.

A real highlight of the weekend was a catch up with an old school mate from Linden School, Linden Scouts & Tawa College days - James Davies. He has been living here about 5 years and we had lost contact a bit, last seeing each other briefly in 2000.

Essentially my best friendship from childhood was with James - and it was all based on a love of sport, and the mutually accepted desire to beat each other at every possible sport or board game that existed!! Cross country, table tennis, monopoly, backgammon, golf, backyard cricket, football - simply everything. So we met up at a pub near the river and had some beers, spun some yarns about how good we were (man we were good!) & caught up on what we are up to now and what has happened to us/various people we both knew, in between then and now. It was just a really great time. Nics, Becs & Paul joined us later and probably learnt a few things about me growing up, as did Lyndsey, James's partner, who was fascinated to meet one of his NZ mates from growing up, something she hadn't done up till then.

Next day we did a bit more exploring, before finding a pub mid-afternoon 'the Boat Race'- the annual Oxford v. Cambridge rowing race down the River Thames. With TV build up much longer than the race, it was interesting to get a sense of the history of the race. Given that I was in Cambridge for the occasion, & liking the place a lot, I was going for the 'light blues', but unfortunately, and against pre-race predictions they were soundly beaten by the Oxford rowers (and the choppy waters - allegedly the Oxford boat had a pump to get rid of water but the Cambridge boat didn't - so surely they didn't have chance in the lively waters of the Thames!).

Then Easter rolled around and I was off on my trip to Normandy/Brittany in France, for the long weekend. This was my first break since Christmas/New Years, so I was really hanging out for it when we jumped on the bus at Victoria station on the Maunday Thursday night, and it seemed most other people felt the same, as there was just a sense of general tiredness and relief at having a four day break, as we made our way down to Portsmouth.

I did this trip with Angela, and her mate Kara (both Wgtn girls), and Kara's friend Debbie from Adelaide. It turned out to be a really enjoyable time - our busload of about 50 people was pretty much an even split of Kiwis, Aussies and SAffers, with a few Americans and a Pom or two. Everyone was pretty friendly, reasonably interested in the historical places we were visiting, keen to chat & swap stories about tips for other trips, 2 year UK visa problems, etc... as well as to go out for dinner and a few drinks each night, so the whole thing had a pretty good vibe (as Dennis Denuto would say!).

The cool vibe wasn't exactly cultivated by our tour guide, who had his own quirky nature, an air of keeping things pretty formal, and rather worryingly didn't seem to be a people person. This was initially of some concern but by the end of the trip his character and mannerisms had come out and various impersonations of him were being done, which proved he had won us over (or the exact opposite!). His regular phrases were (e.g. 'I'll tell you more about that when we get closer' and 'Sorry about the weather'- it was grey and rainy for 3 out of the 4 days) - made me wonder what my most frequent sayings were when I was teaching!

The trip started with the ferry over from Portsmouth. Initially it was like discovering a new Interisland ferry. However, as it was an overnight trip, leaving at 11pm, and getting into Le Havre at 7:30am (the ferry goes slow to arrive at a sane hour!), sleep was required unless a bunk had been booked (no in our case), or you brought a lilo, it was in chairs or on the floor. Most people therefore weren't too happy or refreshed the next morning, but I had come equipped! With my puffy, warm winter jacket acting as a mattress for my upper torso, and ear plugs and eye shades, I dozed off quite marvellously, waking to arrival in France and a lovely cooked breakfast.

Our first stop in Normandy was the city of Rouen - famous for where Joan of Arc was martyred in 1431, for not recanting from her 'visions from God' to lead France into war against the English. I was able to have a look at quite a bit of this city, as I had my bike with me. So after looking at some cathedrals and finding the memorial to Robert La Salle, who claimed Louisiana for the French crown, I arrived at the square where Joan D'Arc was burnt at the stake, and had a look at the memorial.

Next stop was the small town of Giverny, on the River Seine - famous for Claude Monet & his gardens - huge, beautiful & peaceful - here I started going a bit crazy with my camera, snapping away at the lilies, tulips, willows and ponds that were there. I also took a photo inside Monet's house (NOT allowed) and was quickly censured - by the very onto it guards - I sensed I had done something wrong as soon as my flash went off, as there was a hasty commotion and sentence in French directed in my general direction, in front of about 25 others: 'Monsieur... vous non ...blah blah... photo... blah blah... si'l vous plait' to which I calmly replied 'Pardon' with an excellent French accent, to which he replied 'Merci', in a real French accent!

Trying to not look too sheepish we made our way around the rest of the house, including the famous yellow dining room and the purple kitchen - (rather overpowering colours really), I bought myself a Monet waterlily painting tie, and we were on our way to Caen to our 3* hotel (essentially a talked-up backpackers), which was to be our base for the next 3 nights.

Next day (Saturday) was a special day, and for me the highlight of the trip - visiting the D-Day beaches. En route to the American cemetery I did some reading ahead in my Lonely Planet (this is a legacy of our family trips all around NZ during summer holidays, whilst growing up. As chief navigator in the front passenger seat (I think Dad knew exactly where he was going!), in advance of our arrival at any township or historical site, Mum would read from her worryingly vast collection of travel & history guides - proceeding to tell us everything about what we were visiting, before we even got there!

But it does have its benefits: I asked the driver if we could visit Pointe Du Hoc, basically a high cliff-point on the coast to the West of Omaha Beach which the Allies had to scale, take and disable, in the early exchanges of 6 June 1944 - as it was a base for shelling any landing force on the Normandy beaches. The driver obliged and we visited what was the remains of a full on D-Day battle scene, with empty gun emplacements, underground bunkers, and the most staggeringly large bomb craters, from the bombs dropped by the Allied planes, some about 10m in diameter and even 10m deep. This was spread out over about 4 football fields and we toured around it, with growing awe and a much greater sense of what had happened here almost 62 years ago.

After that we went to the American cemetery, as portrayed in Saving Private Ryan - huge, really beautifully and fittingly designed, with fields of grass covered with rows of thousands of white crosses, looking out onto the coast. We explored the various memorials, then the fields of graves, quite solemnly, and took some photos portraying the rather sobering scene.

Then we went to the small town of Arromanches, on the Normandy coast. The weather had been suitably grey till now (as on D-Day) but now it started raining. We went to a 360 degree D-Day movie show for tourists, on the cliff overlooking Arromanches. From this cliff you could look out and see the artificial 'mulberry' harbours, made to help the invasion force as an artificial harbour. Some of these are still there today, in a broken ring way out at sea, far further than I thought they would be.

The D-day film mixed footage of the invasion with current scenes of the area. It was pretty effective, with big screens all around you and associated war footage, guns/bombs going off etc... After the 20 minute show we were funnelled out into the tourist shop and bought quite a few postcards and mementos. Then we walked down into the town, had lunch and I got a brief chance to walk on one of the Normandy beaches, which I did - unfortunately it was high tide, so it didn't really portray the scene as the history books do, but poignant nonetheless.

Then we were off to Bayeux, for the famous Bayeux tapestry - virtually a fabric cartoon strip - portraying the only successful invasion of England ever, in 1066, by William the Conquerer. It was really quite engrossing, stunning detail, and about 70m long by 1m wide. We had an ear phone commentary to walk through with, which brought it to life, by explaining each section of the tapestry.

Our final stop on our way home, was the Commonwealth graveyard in Bayeaux, which had a more personalised touch to the head stones of each grave. This really brought the personal loss/tragedy of the war home for me. Each family has put a verse/phrase, onto their son's headstone, and the variety and essence of sacrifice and loss in these messages got me quite stirred: 'There's some corner of a foreign field, that is forever England', 'With Christ, which is better by far', 'Well done son, you played the game', 'Survived by his only wife and son' - overall a really different and I felt, more powerful feel to the cemetery visit earlier in the day.

We drove home rather tired in the bus, and then went out for a meal, with various people from the trip, savoury then sweet pancakes. Then it was a compulsory trip bonding session - beers at the Irish pub and a good chance to mix and chat with others on the trip.

Easter Sunday consisted of another highlight, a visit to the stunning Mont St Michel monastery - on an uneroded granite island, a few hundred metres out from the coastal plain of Normandy/Brittany coast. This was quite amazing - our eyes were transfixed by this thing, looming larger on the horizon, becoming more detailed as we got closer allowing us to make out the various parts of the walled town/abbey, from the base, all the way to the top. It was pretty crowded with people and must be manic in summer, but we slowly went on the walking tour up and around the various parts of the abbey, snaking its way up to the top and pausing in the numerous rooms - chapel, cloisters, monastic dining hall, etc... to read the tour notes and get a sense of this special place.

After this we visited St Malo, another walled city, quite old and quaint again, and famous for its French maritime explorers and as a point for launching fishing trips as far away as the NE Canadian coast. Then it was home again on the bus, and out for a very nice meal with about 8 of us from the trip - this time a lovely cheese fondue.

The final day was a lot sunnier, which was really welcome by now! We started with some brandy and apple cider tasting at a vineyard - absolutely beautiful cider - like nothing I've ever tasted - really oaky, fruity and aged - I bought 3 bottles for very special occasions in the future, it was unbelievably brilliant. Funnily enough, everybody was now in a good mood from the strong Calvados shots we had also had. So we proceeded to our final stop of the trip, to the small and quaint old fishing port of Honfleur, on the banks of the River Seine. We had a lovely fish meal in the outside restaurant and strolled around looking at the majestic port basin - filled with lovely boats, and the whole scene colourful and bustling - stunning - and a great last stop to toast a great trip, before heading back to Le Havre and catching the late afternoon ferry across the Channel.

On board we played a massive board game of Settlers with 8 people from the trip, before docking at Portsmouth & driving up to London from Southampton at 10:30pm. A great but busy long weekend ended with me cycling home from Victoria station at 12:30am Tuesday. The next day at work (and most of the week) - I was on auto pilot!!

Friday April 28 was a special day - it was one year since I arrived in the UK. Had drinks with a few friends after work, and ended up at my mate's place for a game of Scotland Yard.

Saw Billy Joel's musical 'Movin Out' in early May, good, but not as good as Queen's musical, anyway, enjoyed the classic songs throughout the performance: best song was my favourite -'Goodnight Saigon' - but felt a bit ripped off when they didn't even play Pianoman!

Mid-May went to Amsterdam for a weekend get away with mate Angela. Highlights were lovely warm spring sunshine, an informative bike tour in the city and then the countryside (giving a humourous summary of Amsterdam's red light district & 'coffee' shops, windmills, clogs & the like), going to 'Boom Chicago', a hilarious stand up comedy show, similar to 'Who's line is it anyway?', getting lost on identical roads next to identical canals, surrounded by identical buildings!, visiting Anne Frank's huis (house) - pretty sobering, a lovely relaxing breakfast in the sunshine in the Jordaan district, and visiting the Dutch Resistance Museum.

I also caught the best FA Cup Final since the '80s ended - watching Liverpool come back from the dead (again!) to win the FA Cup Final against West Ham, in an Irish pub surrounded by Scousers going ballistic - including this adorable little 8 year old kid, kitted out in full replica LFC kit (No. 8 of course - Stevie G), jumping up and down on a bar stool and out-chanting his Dad, as Steven Gerrard won the game for the Reds with 2 amazing goals.

And after that I had a week off work! This was because I was starting my new job, and was able to get a week off in between. My new job is essentially the same one, which I have been enjoying a lot. In March, I was offered a year long contract in my current role with the Crown Prosecution Service, supporting the Project Manager of a pretty big business restructure of the CPS's Finance, Payroll, HR, Facilities Mgmt National Business Centres. It offers much more security than temping, which I have been doing since July - 25 days paid holiday, sick leave, less hours (only 36 aweek!), 12.5 stat holidays, a good pension package, and most of all certainty for the next 12 mths. The weekend after I signed on, I felt really relaxed and peaceful about it, so am very pleased with how things have turned out.

I have also moved flats in the last month. My land-lady in Maida Vale asked me to move on from May, so one Saturday, after looking at a random flat off the gumtree website in Acton, and being a bit unsure about it, I prayed, 'Well God, if you want to, open and shut the doors on this one'. 20 minutes later I got a text from a Kiwi mate from Wgtn, saying a flatmate was moving out, and asking me if I wanted to move in! So now I am in Dollis Hill, with Simon Cuff aka 'Cuffy', from the legendary Tawa Trojans cricket team, which we both used to play for back home. It is a smaller room, but I have managed to buy a desk and fit that in, and get it sorted to maximise space - so very happy, and liking Dollis Hill - can see Wembley stadium in the distance from my street. One brilliant feature is that the overland 'Thameslink' train which I now catch from West Hampstead, stops right outside my office near St Pauls, so its about 40 mins travel time each way (incl. walking - pretty good for London).

That's almost it! Organised a 70th anniversary London event for NZ's Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship, last week (I used to be heavily involved while at Uni) - a fair bit of organising, but went well. Went down the the New Forest near Southampton on Bank holiday weekend just gone, with 3 other friends from church, and did some mountain biking in the forest - very nice & very NZ-like - even rained quite beautifully (Fiordland-like) as we rode the final 3 miles.

Am now getting totally amped for the World Cup, starting next Friday. I'll probably be in the pub for most of the next month, watching it! My first memory of the World Cup is from 1982, 'you can measure your life in World Cups'! TV coverage is already manic with heaps of documentaries of glorious England victories or losses, from past World Cups. The first round games kick off over here at 2pm, 5pm and 8pm, and all on free to air TV, so I should be able to watch two thirds of the first round - it is going to be completely awesome. I've had a good effect on British sport since I got here (that great Ashes victory!), so hopefully England will go all the way this time - it will be amazing if they do, but if its 'Heart break for England' again, the response should be quite an interesting sociological event to witness!

And as if anything could get close to the excitement of the World Cup, I have bought tickets to see metal legends, Def Leppard in concert in mid-June!! Can't wait.

Bye!

The Mr X factor 7: February 22, 2006

Christmas holiday in Spain + Jan/Feb happenings

Hi all & happy new year! My Xmas trip to Spain now seems quite a while ago and it has been back to work lately. But the Spain trip was fantastic! I flew out on Dec 22nd, very excited and relieved to get a decent holiday for 12 days. After a night in a v gd backpackers in Granada I caught the bus around the Sierra Nevada mtn range, to meet up with the others (4 of them fellow Kiwis away from home, in the non-touristy town of Orgiva, in southern Spain.

We hired a 'cortija' - the Spanish equivalent of a villa, I guess. It was cosily small for 6 of us with a fire for the cooler nights, and shutter windows for blocking out ALL light, for their famous siestas. And sleep was what dominated the first few days of the trip as most of us zonked out after the end of a tiring year. With the shutters and quietness you just don't find in London, we would wake up in pitch black, thinking it was 10am, only to find it was past 12nn! Breakfast was regularly at about 12nn, lunch after 4pm and dnr sometime after 10pm!

When we were awake, we read lots of books, had some good catch up chats with each other, played some great board games - I highly recommend Stonewall & Alhambra!, went for some walks and ate lots of lovely croissants, or 'pan au chocolats', as well as plenty of Spanish 'tapas' meals. Mmmm - beautiful!

We got an abundant amount of sunshine too - it was like NZ - bright, blue sky sunny days, gd vitamin-D intake for us - having had a couple of months of grey UK skies. It was awesome and we watched some pretty lovely Spanish sunsets too. Temperatures got up to about 15 degrees where we were, and when we left our cortija and went down to the coast, sometimes up to 18 degrees.

After Christmas day celebrations (we had an outdoor tapas lunch, followed by a afternoon drive, & roast meal late on Christmas night), a few days of really slowing down and chilling out, we began our day tripping around southern Spain - trips further up into the mountain towns of the Sierra Nevadas (Pampierna & Bubion) where we saw quaint, marble white houses almost sliding off the hillside, awesome sunset and some crazy Spanish driving on v. windy roads. On another day we went down to the coast and towards Malaga, and up a steep inland hill about 600m high, to a hilltop town of Comares, with wonderful views, previously fortified by the Moors, and defendable like a hill-top Maori pa.

We also did a day trip to Almeria, the south-eastern corner of Andalucia, where the only desert in Europe is (being - Mr Geography teacher is back! - sheltered from predominant Westerly winds, and being an area that the Spanish de-forested centuries ago for the Spanish Armada). This was a great trip, mainly due to our visit to an old film set, where Spaghetti Westerns such as 'The Good the Bad & the Ugly' were filmed. Now they operate as tourist attractions. One of these we visited, 'Fort Texas - Hollywood Bravo studios' was the name. I was instantly excited as we drove up to the entrance, then staked out the joint, as we walked down the main street to the saloon. Soon the shoot-em up show began (including mock fights, hangings and a bandit being towed behind a horse by a rope, as well as a plot, spoken in Spanish), with 40 year old men playing cowboys and indi... well pretty much cowboys!, complete with Marlboro cigarettes & cap guns which made all the babies on the saloon porch cry when they went off.

Another highlight was visiting the Alhambra - a massive castle/palace/estate from Spain's mainly Muslim past. Everything was beautifully designed and built, with lots of symmetrical lines, beautiful trees & landscaped gardens - (Paul Roper you must go there!). It meant a big day walking around and taking it all in, as well as taking heaps of photos of every angle that made for a good shot - I took 36 on thatday and 110 for the whole trip - all on a film camera. After that we had a relaxing afternoon hanging around the city of Granada, with a lovely meal to celebrate Rebekah D's 30th birthday.

So after a few day trips, more food, sleep, yarns and board games, our trip ended and I flew home to England on the plane - with everyone groaning in unison about the cold, rain & fog as we touched down at Stansted on 3 Jan. No more major trips since then, although I have been up to the CPS's Liverpool office for work, which was fun - Liverpool really reminded me of Wellington, with its tall waterfront buildings, breezy wind and harbour-like width of the Mersey River.

I also caught up with a family relation in Essex in late January, which resulted in a rather astounding finding. Sister Nicola and I went out on the train to visit my Dad's cousin Geoff, whom we first met in 1997, when he came to NZ. After a lovely day with a roast meal and walking of their dogs in the countryside, we hauled out some family-tree documents. After trawling through about 11 pages tracing back to 1611, Geoff alerted us to one 'Winston Churchill' on our family-tree - which was quite mind-blowing - so I now know I have links to aristocracy! - quite exciting- might show up at Blenheim Palace with my tree and ask for a room some day!

Already my 'connections' have paid handsome dividends (or so I like to think). Earlier this month I organised & attended a conference for work at the Hotel Russell in London - very flash, interior made of marble, chandeliers everywhere - all very grandiose! We were there 2 days, and when I checked in, I was informed that they had upgraded me to the Penthouse suite - on the top floor overlooking Russell Square, having 3 rooms to it, including a massive widescreen TV at the end of my bed, complimentary wine, torrential downpour-like shower (with sidejets too!), and the envy of my much more senior colleagues! Was it the Churchill factor, or just because my name was on the conference bill?

Also, I could easily declare my OE fulfilled & over now, as I have appeared in TNT's (Antipodean tourist magazine) 'Spotted' page! Can't say I've been desperately trying to get into 'Spotted', however in early December I went with Danny Hayes & some other mates to the Swan pub in Stockwell - which was having its 25th birthday celebrations. As we were jiving away to some groovy Irish music + rock covers, we got snapped, and within 2 weeks we were in the mag. Very cool - many people live here for years but don't get in it!

Various other things:

For Waitangi day celebrations over here, I went to Parliament Square on Saturday Feb 4th to watch about 3000 Kiwis on the Circle line pub crawl congregate to do/watch the Haka. This is a yearly custom of showing NZ drinking ability at every stop on the Circle line, as well as a moving display of national spirit, with the Haka performed, at the place where the decision to colonise NZ was made, 167 or so years ago. It was quite special, as was Cuffy's Elvis outfit! Various chants went up, including possibly the last 'Ooh-aah-Umaga' chant ever in the UK, and the national anthem was sung in both languages (English first in case you are wondering!).

Two weekends ago I went out to Hertford to Rachel D's 30th birthday, where there were 4 of us from our 1993 7th form year at Tawa College, as well as various other Kiwis in the UK and locals from Herts where Rach & Mike live.

Had my best Valentine's day in years last week - with Reese Witherspoon at the movies - except she was on the screen - a few mates went and watched the new Johnny Cash biographic movie 'Walk the Line' - really, really good - also reminded me of playing Johnny loud & proud with Glasgow St flatmates in 2003/4 - gotta get that CD!

This last weekend I have been getting into my sport watching in the pubs, for the first time in a while. There is so much football on TV over here, that it is easy to give it a miss and think you will catch it next weekend. But now that it is getting towards the end of the season, the big matches are happening, and there is nothing like FA Cup knock-out excitement. So it started with the FA Cup 5th round on Saturday, watching Liverpool beating Man Utd was great (always is!). More painful was watching my team, Aston Villa get completely outplayed in the first half, then take the lead, only to draw with Man City after City scored with the last kick of the game (95th minute!) to force a replay. Bring it on again! I also caught the Hurricanes v Western Force with a new mate from Perth, and a few other Wgtn people over here. Very comforting being away a long way from home and being able to feel at home by watching Super 12+2 rugby. A decent roar went up when Grant Nesbitt's commentary came on!

And that's about it. Next trip is planned for Easter - I am going on a 5-day coach tour around Normandy with Angela + her mate, and whoever else signs up for it - really looking forward to it. The sacred D-day beaches will obviously be the major highlight for me, given my love of geography & history, but there looks to be heaps of other stuff too, which will be very inspiring - Rouen - Joan of Arc territory, Mont St Michel, Bayeux tapestry (but surely nowhere as impressive as my Scout blanket with all the new patches I have to sew on!), so that trip will be great. Until then its work, London life, hanging with friends, working on my photo album (still putting August's photos in!), and a weekend visit to one or two family friends, who live on the outskirts ofLondon.

Finally, the buzz of being over here & living it, has finally waned. Since I've been here, there has been this intense excitement that I had every day, even catching a tube to work, of the excitement of the being in this most vibrant of places, on the other side of the world, doing my OE. Having started 2006, it's gone, perhaps the effect of a new year and having been here a while now. I'm not too disappointed, the buzz still comes every once in a while - it's just that it lasted so unexpectedly long, that I began to think it would continue indefinitely. Then, elusively, it left!

I haven't. And what has arrived from NZ, from mates who flew home for a wedding, is a fresh 9-pack of Cookie times. Mmmm!! Adios!

Dave :)