Update

Hi Team,
Not a lot to update you with. Nath brother, Chloe (CJ), Nath boyf and myself took a day trip to Brighton last weekend. It was a good opportunity for Nath bro to catch up with Uncle David and score a free lunch for the rest of us. For those that don't know - David is my Dads older brother. We did the usual tourist stop off at the Pier and wandered through the old narrow lanes. Both Naths were dismayed at how many jewellery shops there were. Chloe and I didn't mind looking at rings. Typical Nath bro wondered if the shops were prepared to give discount if two rings were bought.

Nath and Uncle David

Biggs family photo + Oscar

Other than our adventure to Brighton we have been fairly quiet, staying at home most nights in an attempt to save money. I have only had one day of work since school started back so Im starting to get a bit worried about the job situation and the lack of money coming in. Im hoping to hear back from a school today - hopefully they'll want to interview me, then I can work my magic and get the job.
Next weekend we are of to York - to visit Helen & Chris and Brenda & Jonte - all the way from NZ. Brenda is a colleague and footy mate from Pram days so it will be good fun catching up. Im thinking some backyard footy is on the cards. Im hoping to do a ghost tour of York at night. I think it is one of the oldest towns in England and has a lot of history.
The following pics are rather random and taken when walking around London.

The amazing differences in architectural style in London can be seen everywhere.

Crazy people waiting for Topshop to open midday Sunday.

Uncle James and his Tobacco manufacturing business. Hopefully if you enlarge the image you can see the inscription on the building.

England v Bulgaria

We had another action packed weekend. It started on Thursday night with us going to watch Blood Brothers. It was ok, nowhere near as big a production in terms of cast and stage set up as Oliver. Still it is nice to get out and do something.
Friday night we watched England kick Bulgaria's butt 4-0. It was a great atmosphere as the English supporters (73000 of them) were breaking into songs. Not that I could understand what they were saying. My favourite footy match of all time is the All Whites v Bahrain in Wellys and I dont think I will ever watch another game that aweseom again. England played pretty well except for Rooney who is as useless as tits on a bull.
Saturday we hung with my bro and checked out his new flat - very flash. And on Sunday we watched the Black Ferns beat England in the Rugby World Cup final. Unfortunately the Black Ferns got beaten by the ref and as a result the score line didn't blow out like it could have considering we had the best of possession and territory.
This Saturday we are having a day trip to Brighton with Nath and CJ to catch up with my Uncle. Fares were only £3.75 one way so pretty damn cheap and a good excuse to head out of London. The last of summer is quickly fading away. I have noticed it is getting darker earlier in the evenings.
Waiting to hear if I have a secured a long term contract at a school, my agencies are expecting to find out today. Pretty bloody useless on the schools behalf - why wait til the day school starts back before deciding on a PE teacher. Surely this could/should have been organised during the summer break so the teacher is ready to go for the 1st day of school!!

National Anthem

Rooney with the ball - I'm waiting for him to pass it to the opposition!

Nath looking quite bored with the action - probably wishing he was at a hockey match

Gerrard, Defoe and Rooney

Wembley Stadium

Austria

Wow, so much to update you on. I couldn't decide if I was going to do lots of little blog entries, or one big one. I am going with one big entry so here goes.
SALZBURG
Salzburg was beautiful. We really enjoyed our two days there and did loads of touristy activities. We bought a Salzburg tourist card for 25 euros which allowed us to use public transport to get around and free entry to the tourist destinations. We got maximum value out of our card as we went on a cable car ride, took a boat cruise along the river, took a lift up to a look out point, visited the fortress of the city, and finally visited Mozart's birth place and the house he grew up in. We also found a beer house where we wanted to eperience the local drinking traditions. Its tucked away in an alley and as you open the door there is only a long hallway. We were not sure we were in the right place but futher investigaiton along the hallway led us to another door that opened up to an outside area with loads of people drinking steins and eating schnitzel. I could only manage one stein before my tummy was full of beer and meat.

My new jugs!

Streets of Salzburg

View point from the look out. This is the fortress that we visited.

Salzburg at night

VIENNA

Most of the time we were in Austria was spent in Vienna. Vienna is such an easy city to get around as it has great public transport. Nath and I were using the metro and trams like we had lived there all our lives. I had fun making up my own pronunciations of German words! We did a little bit of sight seeing in Vienna but the main reason we were there was for Zane and Romana's wedding and to meet their daughter Lena, who turned 6 months old on the day of the wedding. They had planned lots of activities for the guests to do as most guests had travelled some way and it provided lots of opportunities to catch up with people and meet new ones. We painted plates and cups as a wedding momento, had stag and hens parties, met for dinner at an outdoor film and food festival, obviously the wedding, and then lunch the following day at a great winery just out of the city. The wedding itself was awesome. It was on a boat and we cruised along the Danube river. The party was supposed to end at midnight but we paid the staff to keep going until 1:30am. Then it was time to hit the town and in Naths case loose your bag and get lost! Eventually Nath found his way home in a taxi but because he lost his bag I had to meet his taxi driver to pay his fare. The following day we re-traced our pub route and found his bag which was very lucky.

Painting of the cups and plates

Nath and his neice Lena

The wedding party

Nath and I at the wedding

Schonbrunn Summer Palace - beautiful gardens

BRATISLAVA (not in Austria but Slovakia)
We took a day trip to Bratislava and didnt get a stamp in our passport. Disappointing. It was an hour bus trip and only 11 euros return. We wandered around the local markets and watched some dancers as there was a festival in the main square. There is a castle over looking the city so walked up the hill and had a look around. When it came to lunch time we were surprised at how much cheaper food and drink was. Travelling over an invisable boarder line saved us lots of euros - excellent. Beer was 90 euro cents and wine 1.20. Red bull was really expensive though so because Im good at saving I had a beer instead. Romana later old us that many Viennese people travel to Bratislava to do their shopping as it is worth it for the cheaper prices.

Sadly we are back in London. Next time we see Lena she we will be walking and talking. One of the difficult things about living so far away from home. Check out facebook for loads more photos.

Half a sleep to go

Vienna is jst around the corner - half a sleep tonight then we're off in the wee hours of the morning!
In typical laid back Michelle style I am yet to buy Euro's or travel insurance or pack or find out if I get charged extra for using my mobile in Europe. I have left it to the last day to sort the important stuff out! And its lunch time already, better get a wriggle on.
Just a quick run down for those that want to know - fly in to Vienna Sat, train to Salzburg Sun, return Mon evening to Vienna. Naths family flies in Tues morning, hens party Wed, Wedding Fri, hopefully a trip to Bratislava on Sunday, return to London Mon. Action packed excitment.
A huge thanks to Naths parents who are bringing our ski gear over for us - legends.
Will update the blog with pics and interesting stories upon our return.
Peace out. Go the Black Ferns - win the world cup!

Birthday BBQ

It was Naths birthday yesterday. We had a fun day walking along the Thames and stopping at a pub or two for drinks along the way. My brother bought a disposable BBQ so we had our 1st English BBQ last night.
How many Nathan's dos it take to cook a BBQ? See the answer below.

1

+ 1

= 2 Naths to cook a BBQ!

My Nathan is looking forward to toast in the mornings now the he has NZ marmite that he got for his birthday.
We are very excited about our impending departure to Vienna. 5 more sleeps to go. Nath finally went shopping for black shoes for the wedding, he couldn't put off the shopping any longer. I just realised though the monkey didn't get his hair cut! Will march him down to Big Jims Trims myself and watch it get done. Our only fear is that BAA is threatening to strike. BAA runs things on the ground at airports such as fire trucks, luggage carts etc so airports will have to close if they go on strike. If the strikes go ahead they are scheduled to run over our departure date to Vienna! Fingers crossed they dont happen.
Have retarded flatmate issues at the moment. They have kicked my brother and CJ out because they're taking up too much room and adding to the bills! Duoh Im sure they can pay £ towards the bills. It's just excuses to get them out. Anyway Simon Francis to the rescue - Nath and CJ are going to stay with him for this week and then stay in our room while we're in Vienna. Hopefully they'll be sorted by the time we get back. I think we'll be looking for some Kiwi/Ozzie flatmates before long.
Hope everyone is all good back in NZ.
Auf Wiedersehen (practicing my German!)

Family Day at Putney Park

My Brother has Landed

Brother Nath arrived a week ago. Time has flown by. We have taken the FOPs (Fresh Off the Plane) around London, re-doing the Southbank walk and including a few other stop off's including Westminster Abbey and The National Gallery. Whilst having a quick wander through the mammoth national art gallery we came across 3 Van Gough originals!! Crazy. Just hanging on the wall, no big deal.
Nath boyf (this could get confusing with 2 Naths around) and I have two weeks til we head off to Vienna for Zane's (Naths bro) wedding. Will be good times, and Nath will get to meet his 5 month old niece for the 1st time, which he is looking forward too. We have also bought tickets for the All Blacks v Scotland in Edinburgh on 13th November. What a great reason to visit Scotland. Go the ABs. While Nath as been 'busy' at work he manages to serach for cheap flights on Ryan air and Easy jet. Hopefully we can get away for a weekend in October. Last time we looked there were £5 flights to Hamburg.
Today we indulged in London park culture and met Alicia and Rob at Putney park and hung out for the afternoon. While it seems like a good idea to drink beers in the park, the practicality of not having a toilet close by ruins the buzz. A 10min walk to the nearest pub to pop in for a cheeky whizz soon puts a halt to the afternoon drinking.
While on school holidays I have been busy creating an online photo album of our South America trip. Its a massive 62 pages, and I found it really hard to keep the page numbers down as we have so many amazing photos. The total cost of my creation is $82 USD. Will wait til I have an income to purchase it!
Sorry if some of the pics aren't clear in quality, they are taken from my cell phone.

The Bowler - but not the Dunedin student variety

Following the Millennium Bridge to St Paul's

Westminster Abbey

The Household Cavalry museum

Looking out over Trafalgar Sq from the National Gallery, with Big Ben in the background

Flashing nipples, a vibrator or pheremone cream!