Party...
Last night we had our farewell party at the Avebury House. Pretty good turn out, with roughly 70-80 people popping in and out. Highlights of the evening included various examples of good and bad dancing, too much food, a fantastic venue and a good chance to catch up with people we may not see for a while. Huge thanks to those who travelled some distance to make it, i.e Corde from Auckland, Mike from Dunners, Lisa and Andy from the deep south and those we have forgot.

There are a couple of photos from the party.

Plans...
Things are getting pretty exciting (and nerve-racking), with only two weeks until we go. Everything is for sale on trademe.co.nz, and we are slowly whittling our possesions down to the bare essentials.

We have given some more thoughts on what to do in Thailand, we are currently looking at spending the first week in Bangkok, we'll be seeing the sights, doing the tourist things, bartering at the markets and at some stage I'll (Aaron) be getting a business suit tailored. Then for about a week, we are planning on travelling down south to soak up some rays on some islands in and around Krabi. We are looking forward to doing some snorkling, scuba diving, sleeping and of course shopping.

Upon arriving in England, we are getting picked up from the airport by a cousin of mine. From there we will try our luck at a couple of job interviews in the first week, before establishing any further plans.

Well thats it from us, next time we make a posting will be from overseas. Hopefully from Thailand somewhere, to keep you guys all updated. You guys can leave comments on these posts, contact us (Aaron + Carmen) from the links on the right or sign our guestbook.

If you want to link to slowlane, simply copy this code, to create the following graphical link.

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Although at some point in my entries I say what I'm currently doing, the entries get pushed off the main page as I post my new adventures. So this is here to give you a wrap up of what I am currently doing and what I have planned for the near future.

Currently I am...
I am in the drawn out process of looking to buy in London.

Aaron is working as/at...
ConocoPhillips as a Trader - Natrual Gas and Power. UK and Europe

I am planning on...given my huge amounts of time. I am going to stop saving and start spending for a while on these:

+ Car rally through Africa (http://spittingllamas.slowlane.net)
+ Cuba - before Castro dies.
+ Skiing in Europe. (booked in Feb -> Italy)
+ Skiing in the US. (booked)
+ Greece - Athens and some island hopping.
+ Westminster Abbey in London
+ Oktoberfest - Go back, this time with a group of mates
+ Czech Republic
+ Amsterdam
+ Budapest, Hungary
+ Copenhagen, Denmark
+ Safari in Africa
+ Norway (booked - April) -Cancelled..need a new plan now
+ Rugby World Cup (booked - NZ vs Scotland)

+ And more, but need ideas?!

If you are over this side of the world and want to join me, I would welcome the company!

Matt Harding is my hero. (watch the video)

Well word has got out that Aaron and I are off to 'PommyLand', and everyone keeps asking what the plan is... So far, we have one-way tickets to Heathrow airport via Bangkok and that's about it.

The important details:
May 9th 2004 -> leave Chch, NZ for Bangkok, Thailand

2 weeks in Thailand, seeing the sights and winding down after the mad rush to finish both of our Masters degrees (by March 31st)

May 25th 2004 -> arrive in England, find somewhere to live and somewhere to work, probably in London

Of course, the plan is to look for a job before we get there, thru recruitment agencies and the web etc, but in reality, we'll probably only have interviews lined up...

Welcome to Slowlane.net!!! Glad you could take the time to visit, and obviously read past the front page.

I've been over in the UK over two years now, kicked off after completing a Masters in Engineering back home in New Zealand, completing that I set off to see the world, have a great time and earn my fortunes (or something like that...).

Upon arriving in the big smoke (London) I pretty much turned my back on Engineering and started a new career in Finance - which I am now half way through becoming a chartered accountant (which I am going to finish), but that soon bored me so now I have moved on to commodity trading at an American oil company. It keeps me entertained and I enjoy it.

This site tends to follow my trials and tribulations on my travels through Europe, and maybe beyond. I aim to keep the folk back home, the ones we meet along the way, and anyone else that is interested, up to date on where we've been, what we've seen and what we thought.

Make yourselves at home - have a look about. Feel free to add comments to our entries - it is expected, so don't be shy. If you want to be informed about new additions to the site, join the mailing list.

You can see what I am currently doing and what the future plans are here.

You can also contact Aaron , for a more personal touch...

About the site:
I made the site myself, with http://www.movabletype.org/ as the back end for the posts and http://gallery.menalto.com/ for the photo gallery.

Hosted at Lunarpages.

As part of any adventure, you want to make sure you remember. To that end we have set up a gallery of photos. Being engineers we like our toys and gismos, hence we have a couple of digital cameras for the trip. We have picked up an Canon IXUS II, which is 3.2 mega pixel. By all accounts a very good camera. So lots and lots of pictures of everything we see, and hopefully lots with us in them.

Next we have got hold of the latest (at this time) and greatest consumer digital-SLR. The Canon 300d - Digital Rebel. Along with the kit 18-55mm zoom lens, we have bought, 50mm f1.8 II and 75-300mm USM Image stabilized lens. So we will still use this to take photos of everything we see and even some of us, but they should be more artistic and a good start for a hobby.