Apologies

By now any valued and loyal readers would have given up on the regular updates of this blog but I'm not ready to let it die so one year on I have decided to add in some pics for those of you not yet on facebook! No major story telling in this one, but my quarter-years resolution is to update more often...... i also said id start running but we'll see.....

So in summary 2008/2009:

• Friend dags comes to play in Scotland (June)
  
• Foo fighters @ wembley - and led zepplin supporting (June)
  
• Musical festival in Belgium (July)
  
• Festival time in Edinburgh and the tattoo (August)
  
• Potatoes in Dublin (September)
  
• Moved into a new flat (December)
  
• Snowboarding for Xmas (December)
• New Years @ ours
  
• Dusseldorf in Germany with Lil
• Isle of Skye (March)

xmas day

Flaine snowboarding

Pint of guinness in Dublin

Tattoo during the festival in Edinburgh

Kel and me

The foos at Wembley in London

Dags and Zane

Glencoe in West Scotland

a day in the life....

nov, dec, jan, feb, mar, april.....

Having counted it up tonight, I realise that it has been six, yes, six months since I updated my beloved blog site. I must admit that once again I am relying on the fact that all of you are on facebook and would have already seen my updates and pics, but for those who are not as socially connected on this ridiculous networking site (which I am now an addict of) here is a brief update on whats been happening in my life.

So after handing in my resignation last November, I temped in London for a couple of weeks before Zane and I headed to Flaine in France for 7 awesome days of snow and sun. We went away with TNT magazine which is a travel magazine for all travellers here from NZ,Oz and Saffa land. As expected it was full of other antipodeans, I think there were about 250 of us staying in a travel hostel right in the centre of the French Alps in a ski-in, ski-out hotel. Very cool.


To sum it up, there was lots of food, drink and snowboarding. I almost died on my first day when Zane took me down a run WAAAAY steeper then I should have been doing, but by the 4th day all was ka pai and I could get down the mountain falling only once every few mins, rather then every few seconds.
Spending xmas day in the snow was bizarre but it was great to be with other people who felt the same as us, homesick but relaxed.


We arrived back in London a few days before New Years and to bring in the new year went with Abs, Pete and Natalie to a house party in Central London.


I made the move to Scotland in early Jan and have been working as a consultant with Hudson in their Sales&Marketing team. I am loving it still, have a great team and love that I get to talk and meet people for a job. Long term, who knows what I will do but for now I am having fun and earning some proper money which helps with our travel plans!
Zane ended up moving here in late Feb and we have been living with another couple near murrayfeild stadium in edinburgh city centre in really nice place which has recently been made even nicer when a weekend grocery shop resulted in a the purchase of a PS3. oops.



Since being up here we have made a trip up to the highlands and went monster searching at Lochness, we have seen some cousins and met some relatives I didnt know existed, we have been to Berlin!! which was amazing. So different to our Munich trip last year. Berlin was cold and wet but history coming out of every corner of the city and it was again a little overwhelming to be in places, like the Charlie's Checkpoint and walk along the remaining parts of the Berlin wall. Not to mention the fact that every building has bullet holes up and down their walls.

4 months ago I knew no-one which was daunting, but slowly we have started to make some great friends, even a few from our trip to France who were part of the snowboarding trip. I have joined a touch rugby club to get fit again, cuz that was just not happening in London, and also will be going along t underwater hockey again from next week.


Apart from working for the next couple of months, Zane is off to Austria for a holiday and I am planning on going to Belgium for a 4 day music festival with some friends (check this line-up out! www.rockwerchter.be/).
In July we are planning a trip to Ireland if we arent too broke. And I am coming home in November for a couple of weeks as well, so if anyone is around I would love to catch up!

This is a bit short but dont want to bore you with too many words and have opted for some pics for your viewing pleasure. Miss u all and cant wait to come home for a visit xox mish

Halloween

zane and I at Halloween

Me and Rach
Crazy Kayleigh
Zane the emo

Here are some pictures from our first Halloween in London with some friends of ours in North London. It was a wicked night, people get real into it over here but luckily we didnt have too many bratty kids showing up on our doorstep asking for candy we didnt have!

October madness

On Thursday I handed in my resignation. It was a long time coming and I was so nervous about doing it but wow it was worth it. Its the first step in moving up to scotland and i am so excited about leaving London and living somewhere with fresh air and room on public transport!!!I have been applying for jobs in Glasgow and Edinburgh and have a few interviews set up for the end of November, so fingers crossed I will have something worked out before my last day of work in London on the 26th.


The last month has been really busy. My mum and her partner chris arrived in London at the end of September and after we showed them around for a couple of days they headed to france to soak up the energy of the rugby world cup. We joined them a couple of weeks later in the south of France where the sun was much appreciated! We flew in to Nice and mum and chris came and picked us up in their flash hired sports car to head to the hotel. It was so good to see mum after 10 months over speaking to her on the phone, and the week with them both went far too quickly. They spoiled us rotten with lovely meals and wine and we had a much deserved break.

Outside our hotel in Nice

For the first couple of days we spent some time wandering around Nice and eating a tonne of really nice food. After some time in Nice, we jumped on the train to Menton and Monaco to have a look at how the rich and powerful people of the world live. Menton was stunning, Monaco was a bit odd with all the white suits and gold chains on the people walking around but well worth visiting and while we walked near the water I am sure all of us were dreaming about winning lotto and buying one of the massive yachts in the harbour to spend our summers in.

One of the yachts in Nice

Zane and I headed to Cannes for a few hours on our 3rd day in France to see where the film festival was held. Again it was a queit sea-side french village where everyone seemed completely chilled out.

Mum and me

After one more night in Nice, with another amazing meal - Mum, Chris, Zane and I jumped in the car for a long drive up the country to Paris in time for them to make the semi-final game on the saturday. On the way we stopped in a gorgeous town called Aix-en-Provence and spent the night in Lyon followed by another day of driving the toll roads up to Paris. Chris did a fab job in not getting us killed by the crazy parisian drivers and we managed to get to our hotel safe in sound with out getting lost on the metro. We had just a day and a night in Paris, so to make the most of it we decided to go up the effiel tower again, but this time at night to see the lights of the city.

Lyon at sunset



We met with Mum and Chris the next morning and walked towards the Arc de Triomphe while Mum kept an eye out for scalpers to buy the gold semi final tickets from her - they managed to get a pretty healthy profit for them and to celebrate we had some coffee at a cafe near the Arc. 3 coffees, 2 Oj's - 47 euros!!!!! Whatta rip!


We then jumped on a bus tour and after a couple of hours got off near the Sacre Coeur where we climed the 40 steps to take some pictures of the paris views. I said a rushed good bye to mum at the metro before leaving to grab our bags and jump on the train back to London.


It was probably best to do it there as I know if I said good bye to her at the airport I would have been a crying mess otherwise, knowing that I am not going to see her for another year and a half :(.

We arrived in the door minutes after the English had defeated the French and spent the next week being mocked by work mates about the loss of the kiwis. Thank god the saffa's showed those poms where to stick there confidence, I dont think I could have coped with anymore taunting!!

Newquay!!

A couple of weeks after getting back from Wales we decided that it was time to start tripping around the UK a little bit more. Abs and Pete recentley bought a sweet campervan and invited us to head sown to Cornwall with them to go to the rip curl surfing champs in Newquay.

The camper is cool - but it does only go 45 miles an hour so we were in for a very very looooong trip. Me and Abs got comfy in the back and fell asleep, leaving the guys to navigate the way down the english roads on Friday night. We finally arrived in Newquay around 3am on Saturday morning and the 4 of us squeezed up in the back of the camper bed which was about the size of a double bed.

We woke before my body clock on the saturday morning and headed into the centre of Newquay to grab a cornish pastry and head down to the beach. After a frollick in the rock pools we headed down to the surfing champs for a day of sunbathing (in my case frying) and beer on the beach. Me and Zane managed to brave the cold and have a dip in the sea, but were promptly told by the lifesavers to get out of the competition area and swim in between the flags. Whoops!

After having a bit too much sun, we got prettied up for a night on the town in Newquay with the locals. we came across a Walkabout pub and got entertained by a very good covers band.
On Sunday morning we had a bit of brekkie and got back in the camper for a long trip back to London so we could get back to work on Monday. We came across Stonehenge on our way which was very cool but also very busy with tourists.

its about that time.....

it has been 2 months since i posted a blog so be prepared for a summed up version of events with lots of pictures!!!

We came back from Munich at the beginning of June and for the next 3 weeks we didnt really do a lot. Had a couple of parties, went to work, came home and slept, went to work again. I was also struggling a bit with £££ due to being charged massive overdraft fees and needed some time to get back on track with finances so we could start travelling again.

We had a few weekends just wondering around london and going to the camden markets. One day we even stumbled across this massive bike race. I couldnt quite work out what was going on with the thousands of people just staring at an empty road.... that is until we saw the flashes of colour go past and realised it was the tour de france!

In the last month we have been up to quite a bit - we have decided that some time in the near future we are going to move up north to scotland and have been making trips out of london to some touristy english attractions while we are still here.

Zane has some good friends from back home called Keith and Abbey who recently got married back in NZ and moved over here and they kindly decided to show us around North Wales for a few days and let us stay with them. So about 3 weeks ago we took a day off work and headed up in a super fast Virgin train to Abergele in North Wales. It was a wicked trip - the train was going so quick it even was on a lean! AND we saw a nuclear power plant on the way up - highlight of the day for sure.

Nuclear power goodness!!!

The train we took was unable to cross the border into Wales - as they are all a bit odd there and it scares the drivers, so instead they dropped us off in a lovely quaint town called Chester. Chester is most famous for having the most pubs per person in a town. In the 1500's there was something like 396 pubs for the 1000 people that lived there. In fact pubs were so popular they tried to cut down the drinking by introducing 'hot chocolate' houses. It didnt work. They just shut down the cafes and turned them into more pubs. Yah for beer!

In all seriousness, Chester was awesome. The city is surrounded by a MASSIVE roman wall and in the centre of the town is the biggest gothic looking catherdral I have ever seen. We were in Chester for about 4 hours waiting for Keith to finish work in Wales and cross the border to come and get us. We spent the afternoon wandering around the shops and went on a bus tour of the city.

Chester town shopping

A squirrel!!!! There is nothing cooler than a squirrel.

Keith picked us up in his escort at about 5ish and we made the long slow journey into Wales. We stayed with Keith and Abbey in Aberegel which is just off the coast in North Wales. Abbey is working at the hospital and they are staying in the staff hostel near Abergele hospital. We had big plans for our first day in Wales to climb Snowdonia - but unfortunatley the heavens opened and it was miserable and wet, so instead we decided to conquer a high ropes course which was about an hour away from where we were staying. It was really challenging, we were in the trees for about 2 hours doing about 20 small courses. One of the courses was to walk across a log with no handrail 15 metres up. By the time we got to that one, none of us were having fun anymore and I was relieved at the end to have my feet on the ground.

zane and keith - the tree hugging hippies

After a couple of hours in the trees, Abbey was still full of energy and wanted to go for a hike. We then drove to the coast and went to a little town called Llandudno and walked up the pennisula called the Great Orme. It was well worth the walk up the hill and we were lucky to get a break in the rain to see some great views from the top of the hill.

Keith and Abbey - happy to be at the top of the Orme!

The day after our hike we had a quieter day on the Sunday and went for a walk arond Abergele. We came across a abandoned castle which had been fenced off from the public. Zane used his lock picking skills and we managed to break through the gates to explore the remains of a beautiful castle that we think had just been used as a residence rather than for battle. After a bit of exploring we headed back to Chester to catch the train back into London. Overall it was an awesome weekend and just what we needed after being in London for so long.

I made it to the castle!!

It has been a while since I did a blog entry, I am sorry but slackness is a forte of mine as you all know. After a strong worded email from my friend alana – I promise I will put more of an effort into this over the next few months and make them as detailed as I possibly can without boring you all to tears!

So we’ve had a couple of full on weeks. Today is my first day at work after a 5-day trip to Munich in Germany but its been a quiet day so nothing to complain about! I finally got to see my castle – and was totally blown away by how beautiful it is around Munich and further south near the Austrian/German boarder. Almost like being in the south island back home.

We arrived in Munich on Wednesday afternoon (the airport rocks too!) and spent the day wondering around the city and wishing we had learnt at least a few words of German before we arrived! Even now I still don’t know how to say hello, thank-you or good-bye! That’s when boyfriends come in handy…..Although like Paris, everyone in the city spoke english which made it a lot easier. We attempted most times to order in German with our trusty lonely planet phrasebook – which resulted in smirks&giggles more than anything! We had our first stein – 1L of beer. I swear the glass was bigger than my head. I chickened out and opted for the radler – which is 50% lemonade, but we all know my tolerance to alcohol – so it was more than enough!!

On our 2^nd day in Munich we went along to a place called ‘Mikes Bikes’. They do bike tours around Munich city and we also got conned into signing up to a bike tour down to Neuchwanstein the following day. Wow who thought that getting on a bike for the first time in 10 years would be difficult?! I was like a drunk on speed. But within 5 mins of avoiding pedestrians we were on our way. We were taken on a 4 mile trip around the city, stopping at all the main historical sites. We rode through the English Gardens, which was stunning – they are supposed to be about 4 times the size of central park in New York!.

In the gardens they have the 2^nd largest beer garden in the world which can hold up to 8000 people. We stopped here for a ‘beer break’ consuming yet another litre of beer with chicken wings before cycling past the gardens nudist area and an artificial river surf break. There are about 20 people on our tour, all good sorts but also all American. I could go on and on about how irritating that is, but I will spare you the boring details.

Friday morning we were up early with very sore bums looking forward to another full on day of cycling near Neuschwanstein. We caught a coach down there with another tour group full of Americans. The castles are about 2 hours out of Munich so we got the chance to check out a little bit more of Germany. The villages we passed were gorgeous, and full of little cottages with white picket fences and smoke coming out the chimney. Once we arrived we were given a bike and another guide who was a South African magician call Brad. He was an interesting guy – would you believe that the way he got home everyday way by paragliding off a mountain to his village? Bizarre but true!

Brad lead the group through farm fields to Swan Lake which we could see some amazing picturesque views of the castles. Out came our cameras and out came the shrill noise of Americans being amazed. (Last complaint of our American companions I promise).

After a gruelling hour of tramping up a hill we reached a bridge which had breath-taking views of both the castle and the german villages beneath it. Yet again out came our cameras. To be fair though it really was beautiful, we were a little bit unlucky in it raining for the majority of the day, but in some ways it made it more magical. That might sound ridiculous but with the low cloud on the cliffs it made the pain of a tramp, all worth it. The tour inside the castle was not that impressive but I have no complaints because it was still spectacular to see it all from the outside.

The day before we left in Munich we decided to visit the Dachau concentration camp just outside of Munich. It was the Nazi’s first concentration camp and although there are claims that no gas chamber killings occurred there, there were still thousands of prisoners that died within its walls, it had a very eerie feeling about it.

It is hard to explain what it feels like to be walking around the prisoners chambers, and the cremation area….(to use zanes description) – an extremely sobering experience. The size of the place was mind-blowing as well. The concentration camp has been turned in a memorial site with a museum in one of the main buildings.

Before we left Munich I had the chance to go for a swim in a swimming pool for the first time in 5 months. It was awesome – 2^nd largest highlight of the trip!