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!