Update

Last weekend Nath and I went to a travel show which promised discounts from numerours travel companies.  We were not disappointed when we went home having booked a day trip to Brugge (or Bruges) and a 6 day trip around Ireland.  The day trip to Bruge is at the begining of December and the point is to check out the Christmans markets.  Unfortunately anything we buy will not make back to NZ in time for Chrsitmas!  Bruge is meant to be beautiful, being a UNESCO world heritage site, so with the Christmas lights I think it will be very photogenic!  As it has some canals it is sometimes referred to as The Venice of the North.
Our trip around Ireland is going to be so much fun.  It is with a company called Paddywagon Tours - just the name alone sounds fun.  We are going for New Years so it will be great having drinks and celebrations with other people.  We will actually spend the night of the 31st on the Dingle Peninsula.  My brother and his girlfriend will be travelling with us.  The trip departs on 27th Dec and finishes on the evening of  the 1st.  Don't think we will be booking flights back on the 1st!
Soon the All Black's Tour of the Northern Hemisphere will begin.  We are going to two of the games.  Helen and Chris managed to get 4 tickets to the AB's Vs Engalnd at Twickenham on 6th November, its going to be a great weekend with H&C staying at ours for the weekend.  How much fun it will be ribbing Chris when the AB's win.  The following weekend we are off to Edinburgh to watch the AB's smash Scotland.  Lots happening in the lead up to Christmas.  Time is flying by.  We are now into our 9th month living in London.  It has nearly been a year since I finished work at Pram College, crazy.
Not sure what our plans are for Christmas.  Was thinking of ducking over to Paris but will probably spend Christmas in London and fly to Dublin on the 26th.  Nathan thought it would be nice to be around home so that we have internet access to be able to skype family and friends back home on the big day.
Half term break starts today.  I am working today but managed to get a teacher to log me on while Im supervising a class in the library/computer room.  Sweet.  I can see that most of the class are playing games but at least they're quiet which has enabled me to write this blog :)
Nathan is going to a ski show this Saturday in the hope that there are some deals on ski packages for the Feb school holidays.  That would be cool.  Also looking at a trip to Turkey for ANZAC day as ANZAC weekend falls on Easter weekend so it would mean Nath wouldn't need to take annual leave.  There are some 5 day tours that we are looking into.
The weather has taken on a chilly bite in the past 2 days.  So far I can still see daylight and the sun is shining, it just isn't very warm.  Winter is here!

Windsor, Stonehenge, Bath and Andrews' Family Visit

The Andrews' arrive in London!

Nath and I have had a very busy week. Brian, Lorraine, Kylie and Ashleigh arrived in London after 5 weeks of travelling around Europe. They were pretty tired when they finally got here but managed to pack in a lot of sight seeing in the 6 days that they were here. They had a day trip to Brighton and a day trip around Bath and Stonehenge. Also the usual London tourist spots were visited as well as having a curry down Brick Lane. While we were visiting Greenwich we came across barriers that prevented us walking around the Royal Navy College. It took a split second to realise that it was the filming of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie! I lay down on the concrete to sneak some pics from under the barriers but that didn't go down to well with the security staff!
It was sad to see the Andrews' leave as we don't know when we will see them again. Brian and Lorraine would like to come back and are already talking of places to visit. Kylie wants to come back to do Greece and little English towns. Hopefully they return while we are still here.

Windsor Castle

Stonehenge

Bath

Avebury

Thatched roof in Avebury

York, Hammerton, Knaresborough and Sutton Bank

The Shambles

Knaresborough

York town walls

York Minster

A wicked weekend had by all at Helen and Chris'. They live in a small village called Hammerton that has a post shop and a train station. It is a 10min train ride to York from their village. On Saturday morning we had a look around York - climbed the city walls, visited the York Minster, sampled local food at the market and walked down The Shambles. In the arvo we went to picturesque Knaresborough and rowed along the river under the train viaduct stopping in at the local afterwards. Saturday night was really fun with team challenges of Wii and Cranium - Naths favourite! Sunday was not a lazy Sunday. Nath and I walked around H&Cs farming neighbourhood - coming across blackberry bushes, pheasants and tractors. We all took a drive out to Sutton Bank where we did a track walk to the white horse carved into the hillside. After all the activity it was time for a hearty cavery lunch and then home time back to London.
It was great to catch up with Brenda and Jonte over the weekend, had loads of fun with everyone. It was neat to be with NZ friends (and Brenda bought us pineapple lumps and jaffas - legend).
Work has been picking up for me lately. I had 3 days work last week and this week I have 5 days. Three days are working for TFL (Transport for London) again so hopefully they keep booking me as they get busier. Nathan is away in Liverpool for work today and tomorrow. Doing some product demonstrations and hosting user groups for those that have the software already. His family arrive in London tomorrow evening so it will be a busy week trying to fit as many things in for Kylie and Ash to see and do before they fly out. We are hoping to hire a car and spend a day around Bath, Stonehenge and Oxford. I have Stonehenge is crap but I will go there myself and let you all know what I think. Im going to be knackered after this week - I havent worked a full 5 day week since the end of June.
This is a video of our boat race. Half way through Helen felt sorry for the losing boat and asked Chris to slow down. Very funny.

Pope's Visit

The Pope

Looking towards Buckingham Palace

St James' Park

St James' Park

Yesterday we lined the parade route to catch a glimpse of The Pope. Very pompous affair. The parade route was patrolled by police from 2 in the afternoon even though the drive by wasn't until 6. Nath and I arrived in town at 2 and had a look along the parade route then wandered around St James' Park. We also met up with Bhav and Emma who we managed to convince to come with us to see the Pope, and they convinced us to go to Brick Lane with them after for curry. Good end to the day. Especially as I bargained well for our group at dinner and got free popadoms, no corkage or service fees, and 2 4 1 on everything. So our dinner cost us £4.50 each - popadoms, vege samosas, curry, naan and rice. Bargain.

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.