London 4 months on....and Christmas

So we have now been in London for a little over 4 months and have just had our first Christmas as husband and wife, in a foreign city, in the Winter! Perhaps a time for some reflection....a few things that still puzzle us about London!

Mystery jackets –these are winter jackets that come to the bottom of a girls butt cheeks and we are never too sure if she has anything on under the jacket or not...a mystery!

The highlight of a British Christmas is apparently the TV that is on over the festive season. There are in fact TV ads highlighting the programmes that will be on over Christmas (they are all rubbish). Because it rains a lot here and is so cold, all you are expected to do after you have stuff your tummy on Christmas Day is hit the couch
and tune into some really bad British TV!

Yes the winner of Britain's latest reality TV singing programme (The X Factor) made it to #1 in the Christmas music charts (I think there would have been riots had this not been the case!). I trust that Simon Cowell thinks he has done his job and this will be the last we see of singer Leon!


Still slightly confused over the British past time of tea drinking –in NZ we think that people waste time at work by going outside for a smoke, well here I think you could kill an hour or 2 each day by making tea! Everyone is very friendly and always ask if anyone else wants a cuppa, but 6 times a day?? Mat isn't a tea drinker (he prefers the REALLY bad English coffee), and I am a one cup a day kind of person....the variety of tea commonly known here as "builders" (milk and one!).

Changing of the Guards is a world famous 'ceremony' taking place a Buckingham Palace every second day in the Winter. This supposedly includes lots of pomp and ceremony with marching bands and horses and swords and big black fluffy hats! We decided that the Sunday before Xmas was a good time to do this London must, so we assumed a position in near freezing conditions and strained to see the action through the fog! I was looking forward to the brass band the most, until they broke out a set of Disney classics while the guards stood in the grounds of Buckingham Palace like statues probably freezing their extremities off like us! What kind of Welsh Military band breaks out Disney tunes during the Changing of the Guards? Just one more thing that puzzles me!

On a more serious note, yesterday was Christmas Day –it bought cool temperatures and a lot of rain. We were lucky enough to enjoy a traditional Kiwi lunch at a friend's house with about 13 other orphaned Kiwis. We had a feast of beef, ham, chicken AND lamb! This was followed by fruit salad and ice cream (kiwi fruit included but no Hockey Pokey ice cream unfortunately) as well as my traditional strawberries dipped in chocolate (but this year the strawberries were from Egypt!). Thankfully Mat remembered to send a change of address to Santa so we were also lucky enough to have a pile of presents to open again this year.

Deliveries from Santa and NZ!

Presents in bed!

We are heading off to Switzerland until the New Year tomorrow, so look forward to sharing some pics of the snow with you afterwards. Until then, have fun in the sun if you are in NZ!!

Mat and Sam


When Kiwis go to London they.....
Go and see Crowded House at Wembley!
Eat Pineapple lumps and jet planes sent from home!

The best meal we've had since our last update was.....
Indian on Brick Lane. Not because of the food (which we're not quite sure if we've recovered from yet) but because of the pre-dinner bartering. Four free bottles of wine, beers for the boys, pompadoms and 35% off the bill! Not bad!

Underground countdown
Our total so far is 54/320 and new entries include:
Wembley Park
Southwark
Old Street
Marble Arch
Picadilly Circus
Liverpool Street
Green Park

We made good progress on this recently. Not only did we knock off another 7 stations but the entire East London line has been shut down so our target has been reduced by 4 stations!

Soho

So when we ventured off around the world to see and experience new things, no-one told us that good coffee would be so hard to come by!

Correct me if I'm wrong but if you spend a month or so buying the odd coffee from a cafe you might expect the staff to recognise you. You might even get lucky and they might remember what sort of coffee you drink. When you get your coffee there's a pretty good chance it will be .....well....good.

I'm afraid to report however that this isn't the case in London. Not only can you go the same cafe every day for a week and still not be recognised (there's only three staff) but the chance of them remembering the type of coffee you ordered two minutes ago is slim. The chance of them giving you what you ordered seems even slimmer. No sugar means NO SUGAR!

All of this might be OK if the coffee was any good but it's not. It's enough to make you do what the rest of the population does – revert to tea or beer.

So, just when almost all was lost we acted on a good tip. We visited Flat White, a cafe in Soho established and staffed by similarly desperate Kiwis. Apparently flat whites (the ones we all know and love) are a Kiwi/Aussie thing. You can't buy them here. Not that this really matters because the Flat White is far more than just a place where they serve coffee differently.

First of all, when you walk in, there is a bit of Ponsonby about it. It's one of those little narrow cafes with one too many tables pushed into it. You know, you have to climb over someone's lap to get to the bathroom out the back, past the F+P fridge and through the beaded curtain. OK I might be exaggerating slightly but you get the drift.

Secondly, you walk into the Flat White with your accent on your sleeve and there is an assumption that the people behind the counter know you already. You order, they look up, try to figure out which part of Auckland you come from and then, when they can't place you they get back to making coffees. If you don't know them you'll probably know someone else in the cafe. It's chocker full of kiwis.

Finally the coffee is good. It's real coffee. None of this "single shot of espresso watered down with gallons of milk" stuff. The flat whites are prepared with a silver fern 'drawn' in the froth (you know how it's done). It's a shame to spoil them by drinking them really.

Needless to say, we will be going back.

In a strange way, the best thing about Flat White and its presence here, is that even though we're half a world away and enjoying the adventures that we are being presented with, it's nice to know that there is a touch of home just a few tube stops away.

I do like to be beside the seaside......in Exeter!

We managed to spend our first weekend out of London in a while by heading to Exeter to stay with Mat's Auntie and Uncle and to see his Granny. Being on a budget, we decided to catch the bus down (5 hours in total), but the BEST bit was taking 2 hours to travel the 13 miles from the Victoria Coach Station to Heathrow to pick up the next bunch of passengers!


Mat and Granny (the photo of all all of us is a bit blurry to post)

Jenny and Gordon made us feel very welcome and it was really cool to see some farm land and hear the cows mooing in the neighbouring paddock! We also didn't realise how much we missed the smell of the sea air! We were lucky enough to enjoy a bit of a ticki tour around the area and saw where Mat's Dad learnt to sail and where he used to sink a few pints! We also spent a few hours with Grannny and heard a few stories about the good old days, before being taken out for dinner (Granny's treat!). It rained for most of Sunday, but we managed to do a bit of shopping and visit the Exeter Cathedral (it has the biggest uninterrupted naive in the UK!). Unfortunately we couldn't take photos inside. I (Sam) did manage to buy my first pair of boots for the winter and they even have warm fluffy bits on the inside!



Outside the Exeter Cathedral...in the cold!

We got the bus home on Sunday afternoon which was a very stop/start trip as it rained all the way and there were plenty of accidents on the M4. Back to London where it has pretty much rained non-stop since.
We have enjoyed a couple of early morning damp, dark and cold walks through Hyde Park this week. The rain has kept the temperatures at a respectable 5 degrees in the morning (high of 10 during the day), but it is it now dark by about 4.15pm. I didn't manage to get out of the office until 4pm yesterday for lunch, and on my way back from the 'High Street' with my sandwich from Marks and Spencer, all the cars had their headlights on! The novelty of taking an extra 5 minutes to get ready to go outside each time has not warn off yet (we are enjoying our scarves and hats and gloves), but I am sure that it won't take long.

M+S

When Kiwis go to London they.....
Go and see their family!

The best meal we've had since our last update was.....
The 'Knickerboker Sundae' at the Lord Nelson in Exeter. Complete with raspberry ice cream and raspberries (for sharing!).

Underground countdown
Our total so far is 47/324 and new entries include:
Victoria Station

P.S. You'll notice that she (Sam) has written this and therefore she (Sam) has written it in first person. I (Mathew) therefore, take no responsibility for those opinions expressed here within.

London in Autumn

If it wasn't for the weather getting colder and the sun setting around 4:30 in the afternoon, we wouldn't have anything to complain about living in London in Autumn. Sam now has a job working for WDMP Communications (an advertising agency), Mat is enjoying his job and the role he is being given and we have been doing lots around London.

It is amazing how much you can do here for free. There is always something happening. Each weekend brings something new to go and be part of. Yesterday we went to see the Lord Mayor's Parade near St Pauls. It has been happening since the 1200's and there are six thousand participants. We managed to miss the RAF fly-by but other than that it was an enjoyable morning's activities. Afterwards we went to the Borough Markets on the South Bank where we have ended up having lunch a few times now. We then spent an hour in the bank trying to add Sam's name to our account (now that she is a productive member of society). We think it is because the English are so polite but they seem to have no difficulties with standing in line FOREVER to get anything done. They don't complain so no-one does anything about it. It's not uncommon to walk past an ATM and see 10-12 people standing waiting to get their own money!

The city is quite pretty in autumn. The leaves have been dropping for a while now and the streets are lined with brown and red. Everyone is wrapped up with scarves and gloves and the heating is on everywhere you go. It might be the novelty of it all and it might be because it hasn't started raining too much yet but it is quite nice.

The markets here are the best we have been to on our trip so far. Instead of the cheap plastic Chinese trinkets they have antique sections, some half decent clothes (although Sam's jacket is the exception to the rule) and some great food. They're well worth a look if you're in London. The nice thing too is that each market has its own flavour – Borough Markets for food, Camden Markets for art and Portobello Road for antiques and clothes. We look forward to checking out some more soon.

Now that we've settled in we have begun to allow ourselves to think about doing some travel. We'll be starting off by going to Exeter as soon as we can (to see some of Mat's family) but we plan to find some snow for Christmas (Switzerland/Austria?) and hopefully some sun and windsurfing for our first anniversary in February. We are also looking forward to sailing in Turkey with Mat's parents and uncle and aunty in summer next year. The holiday entitlements here are.....generous.

That's pretty much all for now. Things are action packed with Sam having a major launch for a client this week. Mat has a couple of projects on the go and Christmas is coming!

We hope all is well wherever you are.

M+S

When Kiwis go to London they.....
Go to see the Exponents at the Shepherds Bush Walkabout!
Run into Katie Newell in the pub.
Start to miss the sea and think that walking over a Thames River Bridge is getting pretty close to going to the beach.
Fly to New Zealand for a wedding.
Get very drunk in Cardiff without seeing the rest of the city.
Buy hats, scarves and gloves.
Go to Oxford Street for the Christmas light turning on ceremony...thing....

The best meal we've had since our last update was.....
At the Borough Markets – fresh produce, made on the spot!

Underground countdown
Our total so far is 46/324 and new entries include:
South Kensington, Willesden Green, Camden Town, Lancaster Gate, Holburn, St Pauls, Chancery Lane, Waterloo, Monument, London Bridge and Heathrow 1,2&3.

P.S Sam writes....this whole writing in the 3rd person thing is quite weird but Mat likes it this way!
P.P.S. Mat says that if we were to write in the first person it wouldn't be something that "we" wrote and we would have to start everything with something like "Sam writes" this and "Mat says" that.

London 2 months on...

Hi again. Here is an update that I wrote over a week ago! Not sure we will ever catch up at this rate but here we go....



The view to Hyde Park from the corner of our street, and the entrance to our apartment

So we have now been in London for a little over 2 months and are enjoying living in central London -our apartment seems to be working out really well. Today is Mat's 31st birthday and we are off to a pub tonight to celebrate with a few friends. He got a new bag (some may call it a man bag) and some tickets for the London Eye for his birthday (I wonder who he might take with him??). Meanwhile, I am still at home on the hunt for a job. I have now had plenty of interviews and am wishing that doing interviews could be a full time paying job! At time of writing, I am still waiting to hear from 3 prospective employers (fingers crossed).

We have been spending our weekends being tourists. A few weekends ago we caught the train to Canary Wharf and then walked all the way back into town (a good 3 hours). We walked along the Thames River path on the edge of the Thames and enjoyed some London sunshine (it is quite rare!). Both Mat and I have been sick in the past month with colds so we have also had a few quiet weekends. We were both fighting fit last weekend though and we checked out the architecture at the British Museum (and its new glass dome designed by Fosters) and the Barbican. We then walked down to the river and enjoyed some lunch at the Borough Markets. It's quite amazing and you can buy almost anything that is edible! The markets have featured in such movies as Bridget Jones. We bought some awesome crumbly chocolate fudge! We also spent some time on Oxford Street shopping for Mat's birthday (has anyone ever been shopping with Mat....we still do not have a new pair of shoes for him).


Mat with his new 'man bag' birthday present (very London!)

Mat is due back in NZ this weekend for Kate and Itchy's wedding (woohoo!). It's a fleeting visit as he is only in town for a week. I am sure he would like to apologise now if he can't get round to see everyone. Meanwhile, I will keep the home fires burning in London and have a girl's weekend to Cardiff planned.

Watch this space as we will update the blog again when Mat is back from NZ.


Mat and Sam

When Kiwis go to London they.....
See Dame Judy Dench checking out cashmere sweaters at Marks and Spencer
Celebrate their birthday at a local English pub

The best meal we've had since our last update was.....
Tapas at a local Spanish restaurant in Farringdon with some of the Harper Downie crew

Underground countdown
We plan, during out stay here, to visit and use as many London Underground stations as we can together. There are 324 of them (according to the back of the underground map) and we hope that this will be a good way to see as much of London as we can.
Our total so far is 35/324 and new entries include:
Tottenham Court Road, Hammersmith, Westminster, Farrington, East Putney, Canary Wharf, West Kensington, Baker Street

London

Hi everyone,

It has been a long time since we updated our blog but we've now got internet at home!

Here's a little update we wrote a few weeks ago. Some things have changed and some things have stayed the same and we'll let you know which ones when update again really soon!

Mat and Sam
















So we have entered a new phase of our trip away. After bumming around for the last three months we are starting to settle into London. It seemed to us that our past blog format probably wasn't appropriate any more so we've made a few changes. Hopefully they still give you an insight into what we've been up to.

This is the end of our second week in London. The first was the week before we headed to Europe. We've had a good look around and we're starting to feel familiar with things. We've got the underground system under control and we're enjoying cheap, regular and reliable transport to almost anywhere in the city. The staff of Metronet managed to throw a spanner in the works last week however with a three day strike. Getting to job interviews at 8:30 on Monday morning isn't so easy without the tube.

We've both been actively chasing work. It seems that the Architecture industry here is frantic and there is no shortage of jobs. The marketing industry however is in a position where they can pick and choose staff pretty easily. They also don't seem to be in any rush. Despite that Sam has had an interview and is quite keen to work with the company. She should hear back later this week. Mat has had a number of interviews and will have decided where to work by Tuesday.

We have also found somewhere to live! We were keen to live quite central and take advantage of the opportunity of living in a big city. After a bit of looking we found a basement level studio in Bayswater only a minute or so from Hyde Park, shops and the tube (it's only about 30 Mat paces from the local pub – The Leinster Arms). Our couch even folds out into a bed so we're taking bookings for anyone who wants to come and stay! Sam was a bit worried about living at the basement level (because of a lack of light) but the flat is in really good knick and, as the landlord said, "it's always dark in London anyway!" We move in next weekend and will post some photos next time.

That's all for now. More interviews this week and Mat will hopefully start work on Wednesday. We'll have more news soon.

Mat and Sam

When Kiwis go to London they.....
Mind the gap!
Watch the All Blacks thump the Italians at the Shepherd's Bush Walkabout.
Watch the Eels scrape by over the Warriors at the Temple Walkabout.
Find themselves walking next to Peter Waring on Putney High Street.
Visit the New Zealand Memorial at Hyde Park corner and think it's pretty cool that there is a collection of Kiwiana sitting in the middle of London.
Go out to a pub one night only to run into Dave Healy and see Mark Ellis having a pint downstairs.

The best meal we've had since our last update was.....
The Thai meal we sought out the night we flew back in from Barcelona. It wasn't Sawadee but it was the best Thai we have had in the last three months!

Underground countdown
We plan, during out stay here, to visit and use as many London Underground stations as we can together. There are 324 of them (according to the back of the underground map) and we hope that this will be a good way to see as much of London as we can.

Our total so far is 27/324 including:
Wimbledon, Southfields, East Putney, Heathrow 4, North Ealing, Ealing Broadway, Shepherd's Bush, Queensway, Bayswater, Paddington, Covent Garden, Leister Square, Embankment, Hyde Park Corner, Bank, High Street Kensington, West Acton, Ealing Broadway, Charing Cross, Temple, Tower Hill, Oxford St, Bond St, Holland Park, Edgware Rd, Knotting Hill Gate, Clapham South

Barcelona, Spain

The great thing about the increased security measures at airports and the requirement to turn up two hours before your flight leaves is that somehow you end up with a whole pile of time sitting at your gate waiting for your plane to turn up. Having been scared into getting to Barcelona airport nice and early and being told that the bus ride would take an hour, we are sitting here, having cleared 'security', with an hour and a half to wait and plenty of time to update our little blog.

So, the city of Barcelona. It's funny in that when you are going to Barcelona everyone associates it with the architect Antoni Gaudi. The maps have Gaudi tours on them, the typical souvenirs are Gaudiesque and in a funny way the city feels more Gaudi than it does Spanish. Needless to say Gaudi's work provided some of the highlights on our three day stop here.

The Sagrada Familia is the crown jewel here. It is a wee way away from the rest of the city and it is unfinished (it has been for the last 100+ years) but it is well worth the visit. You are able to go inside pats of the building that are semi-complete. The crypt has a little museum and exhibition showing the ongoing construction of the building and some pretty impressive information about Gaudi's work in general (mostly in Spanish). Park Guell was also worth a visit and wasn't what was expected. It's on quite a steep slope, bigger and more remote than had been imagined. Other highlights include the Barcelona Pavilion, the Olympic stadium, the waterfront area and some great shopping (not that we bought much).

The city revolves around a road called Las Ramblas. It is the main drag between the harbour and the city's main square. It cuts through the city's oldest parts and has a lot of shopping. You can whittle the time away watching some of the best street ....... performers that either of us have ever seen or sit in one of the cafes/restaurants that line the street (more on that later). We say "performers" but they are a bit difficult to describe. Essentially they all stand still and only perform when you give them money (a bit like the guy on Queen St with the prosthetic arm but on a whole different level). The effort that these guys go to in their costumes is incredible. They are quite simply amazing and they all bring their own sense of humour to the 'job'.

On our last night here we went to see the "magic fountain". It was suggested to us by Victor the hotel guy and it was very good. There is a very large fountain near the city's art museum which was lit and 'manipulated' to music. Here were thousands of people there, it was warm and it was a great way to wrap up what has been a hectic three months. Over the last four weeks we have been to Boston, New York City, London, Paris, Rome and Barcelona. We have slept in 22 different beds now, caught who knows how many planes, buses and trains and seen a lot. It's time now to get back to reality (even if it is a British version of it).

Our first week back will be action packed. We both have a number of interviews (and a few old interviews to chase) and we have to find somewhere to live permanently although, with thanks to some friends, we have our first two weeks covered. As strange as it sounds we are looking forward to settling into some real work and starting to plan our next trip. We will post an update as things come together in London.

M+S

Architectural highlight (and total museum/gallery visits):
If it's ok to choose two, it would be the Sagrada Familliar and the Barcelona Pavillion. Both very different but both executed to a very high level (even if Sam keeps saying the Sagrada Familliar is "butt ugly").
Total museum and gallery visits = 8 (The Sagrada Familiar's crypt).

Shopping highlight (and total black strappy shoe purchases):
It would be nice to say that the long and difficult search for just the right (red) ceramic bull was the highlight as it took all of our three days here and we actually have something to show for it. However, the thing that sits at the front of our mind at present is the 17 euro we paid for a beer and coke on Las Ramblas. Admittedly they were big glasses but given that 17 euro equals about 34 New Zealand dollars and that you could buy a couple of trays of beer for the same amount, we felt a bit ripped off.
Total number of black strappy shoe purchases = 2 (this total has remained static for some time now despite the amount of research undertaken into increasing it)

Lessons learnt:
If the pickpockets don’t get you, the bastards selling drinks on Las Ramblas will.
If the road markings in Italy were a rough guide only, traffic lights in Barcelona should be ignored entirely.
Yes, you can have blisters on top of blisters.
Street performers can be entertaining.
Make sure you read the WHOLE name of the hotel you think you booked at before sauntering into their expansive and clearly far too expensive reception with your backpacks thrown over one shoulder.
When you book a double room, don’t be surprised when you find two single beds and don't be afraid of flashing your wedding ring and yelling "we're on our honeymoon" in order to rectify the situation.

Fear Factor:
4/10 This time we saw people chasing the pickpocket that just stole their bag on the underground. We also saw, on two separate occasions, two grown men (and we use that term with some trepidation) walking down very busy streets at about six in the evening, completely naked (including all body hair.....but excluding 'special' jewellery.....) as if they were on a Sunday walk. It's amazing how quickly a gap in the crowd can form if you're wearing the right outfit.

Funniest moment:
No, not the naked guys, not receiving the bill for our two drinks and not watching the male acrobat jumping onto Mat, wrapping his legs around his waist and posing for a photo as part of his act. In fact the funniest moment was again the round of applause that erupted upon landing at Barcelona airport. We're still not sure if it's in celebration, surprise or relief that we arrived safely.

Total number of Thai meals so far:

It has been more than three months now since we had a Thai meal. We're going to make it one of our things to do this week.