The Mr X factor 24: Spring & early summer – March - June 2010

Leavers & arrivals – parents visit UK – Unemployment – Theology study – Romance update – Cotswolds day-trip – St Gabriel’s Church – parents to stay at No. 66 – 2010 World Cup & the brilliant NZ All Whites – holiday in Croatia – Canal boating with folks – Wimbledon

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Howdy folks! It is well and truly time for an update on things – February to June is covered here in The Mr X Factor, edition 24.

Leavers and arrivals first: In April our friends and cool flatmates John and Shona left to head to New Zealand for good. This had always been on the cards, but it finally came and they were off.
We’ve had some great times with them – especially the pancake lunch afternoon in the flat and their leaving party, where John put a band together and I was able to play harmonica for the first time in a while. It was sad to see them go, but the Kiwis in the flat look forward to seeing them back in NZ someday.

In late April my parents arrived for a three-month holiday over here. Nicola and I drove down and met them in Portsmouth, where they disembarked from a fantastic five-week cruise on a ship from Perth. They had had a great time on board and were very excited to be back here for the first time since 2007. We had a lovely meal together at Nicola and Serge’s place that night, with long-time family friends Anne and Colin, invited to join us as surprise guests.

More recently I have also had the first of the students I used to teach at Tawa College, arrive over in the UK, so it has been lovely to catch up with them. I finished teaching there in 2005, so many of them have now finished university and are working or doing some field trips of their own - I’m still on mine (five years of living over here ticked by on 28 April!!). Mark was here on holiday, so we hung out by the River Thames on a sunny afternoon, and Emma has arrived for a job, so I look forward to catching up with her.

Workwise, in March I had found out my contract at the London Ambulance Service was not going to be extended – the recession has finally caught up with me. Despite the need to look for a new job when there were not many around, being let go from the LAS was somewhat welcome. The project I was managing had been complex, and it reached a natural place to pause and review. I knew I had become a bit tired there and that I needed a rest and a fresh challenge. So at the end of March I finished up there with some leaving drinks to celebrate 2 1/3 years of work there, which has been stimulating, insightful and enjoyable.

I must say, the first few weeks of unemployment were really nice! As well as contacting a whole lot of recruitment agents, it was very nice to finally blob out and slow down. However I quickly realised things were very quiet job-wise. With financial year-end having just completed, then the British election in May, there was a lot of uncertainty about, and a lot of recruitment was put on hold – even before the incoming Tory government’s major spending review and cuts to the public sector. Things seem to be picking up now and I’m finding more suitable roles to apply for. I have an interview for a job this week, so hopefully I’ll be working again soon.

To help take my mind off the very quiet job market, I got stuck into the theology paper I am doing for my Bachelor of Theology degree, via correspondence from Otago University back in NZ. The paper was Early Church History, and consisted of readings, then connecting into seven two-hour audio conferences in NZ via skype, two essays and an exam. It has proved very interesting and made me think alot, as well as keeping me up late on the two nights before each of my essays were due! I did my exam mid-June and am lining up for a paper in the second half of the year – the history Christianity in New Zealand.

On the relationship front things continue well with Wendy, which is lovely. We went on a day-trip to the Cotswolds over the first May Bank holiday weekend, checking out Burford, Bourton-on-the-Water and Stow-on-the-Wold – including an old car museum, pub lunch and some lovely countryside scenery.

We celebrated six months together in May by getting all dressed up and dining at a favourite restaurant of Wendy’s, having the most delicious steak meal I have ever had – and then a sumptuous dessert! A special night out.

Wendy and I have been getting more involved in our church community this year. St Gabriel’s Church (http://www.st-gabriels.org) is just down the road from us and has been really enjoyable, with some friendly and engaging people to meet and journey with on the life of faith. We have been involved in a bible study group each fortnight, with a group of 25-35 year olds, who we are really enjoying getting to know. I’m currently in the middle of organising a men’s weekend away for October, which should a blast!

We had some special dossers to stay at our flat in late May – Mum and Dad were in London after a month gallivanting around southern and western England, so we hosted them over a long weekend, and introduced them to some of our favourite spots in our Willesden Green/Cricklewood neighbourhood. It was a lovely weekend weather-wise too. We went for a lovely walk in Hampstead Heath and also had a nice picnic in nearby Gladstone Park.

On the morning before Mum and Dad left London, and Dad and I did something I thought would never happen – we went to the local Antipodean ‘Walkabout’ pub to watch New Zealand’s football team - the ‘All Whites’ - play in a warm-up match for the football World Cup. This one was against Australia at the MCG, resuming a familiar sporting rivalry. The anticipation of New Zealand competing in just their second World Cup ever, was growing. As my flatmates in particular know(!!), I have been very excited about this World Cup ever since New Zealand qualified for it last November. Unfortunately, we lost 2-1 in injury time to the Aussies, who pretty much tried to hack our team to pieces with some of their tackling.

When the 2010 edition began on 11 June I had already begun my preparations by researching for Rob Edgecombe’s mammoth picking competition, in which I ended up coming second! I was keen to watch as much of the World Cup as possible and have been educating Wendy about it all – her initial reservations were won over by with my infectious enthusiasm and some great All Whites performances! We followed New Zealand's progress with much pride and anticipation, against their Group F rivals Slovakia, Italy and Paraguay.

Ranked 78th in the world, as I hoped, we punched well above our weight, and ended up with three draws, kick-started by a sensational 93rd-minute equaliser in our first game. We spent a particularly brilliant afternoon in the Temple Walkabout pub with a whole bunch of mates, cheering us to a 1-1 draw with Italy.

Unfortunately we just missed out on getting through to the knock-out stages, but did so well, and it has been totally great supporting our team and see them doing well on the greatest sporting stage of all. Apparently most of New Zealand has been gripped by it and football is going through a boom back home right now, so it will be interesting to see when we next qualify for the World Cup - hopefully it will be much less than the previous 28 year gap. Well done Ricki Herbert, Ryan Nelsen and the boys – totally brilliant. You can be proud of your efforts – complete legends!! And well done Spain for their inaugural World Cup win - but remember, New Zealand was the only undefeated side at the World Cup!!

Funnily enough, the weather has been pretty good this summer. I have this theory that there are two factors which coincide to cause a hot British summer: it needs to be a football World Cup year, and I need to be in the UK for the summer to be good! I can remember it being very hot here in 1982 - on a family trip; 2006 was a scorcher - and now 2010 has been the first decent summer since the last World Cup. Pity the British when I finally leave here and head home for good – World Cups might need to be held every year – but that would only cause more heartbreak for England on the pitch I guess!!

After two months at home and job-hunting without success, much of June was about holidaying. Myself and Wendy, plus six of her close Kiwi friends had a lovely week in Croatia, staying in an apartment on the island of Brac (centre-top of the photo above). To cope with being away with all these females, I invited my mate Matt to join us.

The week away was great – sunny and hot - and we had regular trips to the beach (well, the beach consisted of shingle and rocks!) and lovely scenery everywhere. The sea was really clear and it was really relaxing swimming and sunbathing in such a beautiful place.

In the evenings we had some lovely meals on the balcony and chilled out together, before Matt and I would retire to the men's balcony to smoke cigars and recover from the onslaught of chatter which comes with seven girls hanging out together on holiday!!

The highlight of the trip was a brilliant day-trip to the resort town of Bol, on the southern side of the island. We checked out Bol township (lovely), then chilled out on the beach for several hours, walking to the famous ‘Zatlini Rat’ tongue-shaped beach. We finished the day having a lovely meal at one of the restaurants, before heading home via a visit to the highest point on the island - which provided some stunning views of the southern Croatian islands.

At either end of the trip we also stayed in the city of Split, which was quite interesting to explore – especially the remains of Diocletian’s Palace.

A week after getting back from Croatia, I headed up north to Blackburn and joined my parents for a week on their canal boat trip. They were on their way across the Pennine range on the Leeds-to-Liverpool Canal.

It was lovely travel slowly through the lovely countryside (interrupted by the occasional lock to open!) and spend some quality time with them. We also played a few games of Scrabble, which was the usual good fun.

Wendy took a couple of days off work and joined us for the second-half of the week and took quite naturally to enjoying canal-boat life! We had a lovely pub-lunch together on Mum and Dad’s wedding anniversary and were blessed with warm weather for much of the week.

Wendy and I travelled with them as far as Skipton, before heading back to London on the afternoon that England crashed out of the World Cup, losing 4-1 to Germany. The talkback radio was busy and scathing, but at least the M1 was much emptier than usual!

June finished with Mum and Dad returning to stay with us for a few days in the flat. Mum and I went to Wimbledon on 2 July – her first time there in about 40 years.

I had got tickets in the public ballot for the third time in four years! We watched the women’s doubles semis on Court No. 1, before grabbing a seat on Henman Hill to watch Andy Murray take on Rafael Nadal.
Nadal’s my favourite player, so I was pleased to see him win – and go on to win the tournament- it has been a great few weeks for Spain! Mum wanted Murray to win, so was a bit disappointed – even moreso from the shock of Federer going out earlier in the week!

Will leave things there for now folks – good to finally be up to date. Hope you are well where you are!!

With love, Dave