News from Home

News has it, that is snowing back home. Dad has been playing with his new camera and sent through a couple of photos of my home in Christchurch, New Zealand. We are set to head to Spain at the end of the week, so while you are in minus temperatures we will be in the 30 degree region. We will roll over while tanning for you. :+)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARC!
Well my little brother is growing up - today is his 19th birthday. Hopefully he hasn’t kept it too quiet, and some of his work mates will make sure he hits the town! Although he might not have the energy… I also have to congratulate him on a great start to the season in Formula Fords after getting pole at the weekend at Manfield then driving fantastically (so I’m told) to finish the day with a win and 2 seconds. (Carmen)

Amy, Aaron and Caroline's visit to London

A couple of the Wellingtonian girls we met on our castle trip, Amy and Caroline who live in Milton Keynes, came down to London for the weekend to check out the sights. They brought Amy's boyfriend, Aaron, with them so that made for a confusing evening.

We meet them at the London Eye at 5pm. They suggested it, but it is something we've been meaning to do for ages. After about 1/2 an hour in the cue (and our tickets were pre-booked), we made it to our pod with the 32 other people that would be taking our 'flight'. The 'flight' took about 45 mins, which was long enough to see the sights without getting bored.

Amy has the same SLR digital as Aaron, so they were both in their element swapping lenses and discussing settings. Think that Amy has decided she wants a zoomy lens like Aaron's for her birthday (on Tuesday if anyone's interested).

After that we headed to Covent Garden for dinner, then were going to go for a drink when it was suggested that we go see Trafalagar Square and a few of the other sights that the others hadn't seen.

We ended up checking out St Pauls, the Millenium Bridge and Shakespeare's Globe. Amy, Aaron and Caroline were off to Jamie Oliver's restaurant for lunch today, so we expect a full report sometime soon.

Times of Change - A new job at Novartis

Listen up, I’ve got an announcement. I have just accepted a job at Novartis Pharmaceuticals as a Production Engineering Management Graduate (whew, what a mouthful). After going through an interview and an assessment centre, the powers that be have decided I’m the one for the job.

The basic outline is that Novartis have been looking for a new production manager to join their team and having little luck (after interviewing like 20 people), so they have gone back a step and looked for a graduate. The theory is that I will start out learning the ropes and as I go on, will be given more and more responsibility. They are hoping that I will slide into the production manager position within 18 months, so I feel I have big shoes to fill.

The downside is a bit of a commute. It is based in Horsham (about an hour on the train each way from our house) but I’m hoping to be able to work on the train. The upside is that I will be going against the flow of commuters so will have the train to myself most of the time.

There were 8 initial candidates that were interviewed, 3 got to the assessment centre, and I’m not sure if they hired 1 or 2 of us (will have to wait til I get there). The assessment centre involved an hour interview, a 20 minute presentation, a team exercise, a numerical reasoning test, an oral reasoning test and a factory tour (I was very tired by the end of the day) The annoying thing about the way that hiring is done in this country is that it is all through a recruitment agency, so finding out about the terms of the contract involved a lot of phonecalls from me to my recruitment lady to Novartis to my recruitment lady and finally back to me.

I will definitely be sad to leave behind my job at Conoco Phillips as I have made quite a few friends here and it is a great environment with great benefits, but working here has made me realise that I’m not really thrilled about finance.

They wanted me to start ASAP, but I feel a bit obligated to help out my boss, Katy, at Conoco Phillips and then we are off to Spain for a week at the end of the month and off to Germany mid September, so I’ll start on the 27th of September.

Medieval Weekend in York

Deciding that it was time to get away and see the countryside coinciding for my overwhelming urge to live in a castle got the better of us and I managed to hunt out a weekend trip to the Yorkshire Dales that incorporated a stay in a castle.

The trip was £100 a head. That included, the transport (up, back and all around), accommodation at both a backpackers and the castle, two breakfasts and one medieval feast. The bus left Friday night, allowing people to finish work and head to the meeting point. There were two groups of 16, each group on a bus. From London, we drove effectively non-stop through to the city of York, arriving about 11.30pm. The tour guide/bus drives forces everyone to participate on some group bonding games and activities on the way up. So by the time your there you’re well acquainted with the group and the time has flown by.

Upon arriving at the hostel, the group ascended on the bar until about 1am when you could visible see everyone falling asleep where the stood. It is surprising how much sitting on your arse for 4 hours tires you out.

Yorkshire Dales
The next morning, we were greeted to toast and cereal before given a whirlwind tour of York. After the tour, we were given 4 or 5 hours to explore for ourselves. Considering it is the middle of summer, it was strange to see a thick fog in the morning which didn’t lift until mid-day. There are a few interesting things in/about York. The original city had a defensive wall completely encircling it except for two entrances. The walls are almost completely in tack with only a small section missing. We spent a good 2-3 hours walking around the walls and taking photos. Guy Fawkes used to live in York, and his house is still there. And there is a very nice old ruin of a Methodist church, back in the day the king of England was under the effective command of the church, which was run by the pope in France. The king at the time didn’t like this, so he created his own church, ‘The Church of England’, placed himself at the head of the church and burnt the other churches to the ground. He did have an ulterior motive to all this. He also wanted a divorce from his wife, which the old church would not allow.

Assembling back at the hostel, we jumped in our bus and went to Asygarth falls. Made famous by the Kevin Kostner version of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. We hung out there for an hour or so before moving on to Wensleydale cheese factory, to do a spot of cheese tasting. This particular cheese is made famous by Wallis and Grommit. There were a good 15 - 20 cheeses, some of which were very nice, other of which were not. We even bought a block, a nice smoked cheese.

You will have seen in pictures and maybe on TV, dry stone walls all over the English country side. Well it is true, they are everywhere. In the 19th Century, a few land owners held titles for most land in England. The government at the time passed a law forcing the owners to give away large amounts of their land. Of course they gave away worst, least profitable sections away. These blocks of land were littered in large stones, the new peasant land owners, picked up these stones to make the walls. This was also due to a requirement that the land had to be fenced off in order to claim their new land section. The walls have been standing for hundreds of years without mortar or cement.

At this point we dropped in on the highest water fall in England. We weren’t very impressed. Some of the group went for a swim, those who had and sense, did not. Yikes, it was cold. We hung out there for a few hours until it was starting to get dark and it was time to make our way to Bolton Castle.

Bolton Castle
The 14th century castle was perfect. It was just as you wanted it to be. Decaying from war and age. But enough of it standing that you can go inside parts and look around and stay. When we arrived, we weren’t allowed to look around. We were taken straight up to a room on the second floor and given an array of clothes to pick through. We were dressing up into medieval times. Some of us looked good, while others looked like a peasant. As you can tell by the lack of photos of me, I was a peasant. It was getting towards 8pm, so they took us through to a Hall, where our medieval feast was laid out. The owner, Lord Bolton greeted us and told us the story and history of the Castle and his lineage. They made the food mildly authentic; the feast consisted of some cooked chickens, a lot of stew and other vegetable slops. But we ate our fill. Beer and wine was provided. After dinner we had a couple of boat races and drinking games before the tour organised games began.

At this point, we still had not looked around the castle, had no idea what sort of condition the other 90% of it was in and it was getting towards being pitch black. We split off into groups of 5 or 6 for a scavenger hunt type game. Each team was given a map of the castle, and a clue. Using this clue we had to find in the castle an item. The items dressed one of our team into a king. A crown, cape, sceptre, cross and shield. We had only a single lantern for each group. The race was on. It was a serious laugh, there were people running in all directions, in the dark, people lost their groups and therefore their lantern bearers. The castle is surprising large. There were a lot of pigeons nesting in parts of the castle, and as groups of drunken peasants ran through the decaying rooms they tended to suddenly fly out of the dark, scaring people. You were constantly hearing screams and laughter.

Once the teams finished up, we gathered back in the dining hall next to what was now a raging fire. A few more drinks later and we were ready for our next task. Blind folding our now 5 kings, we headed down to the hedge maze outside. With the group standing around the edge of the maze, the object was to yell directions at the blind king to try and get him/her out of the maze first. Upon exiting the maze jugs of beer had to be downed to finish.

The two winning teams, one from the scavenger hunt (Aarons team) and one from the maze (Carmens team), got to throw water logged sponges at the heads of the losing teams while they were in trapped in a stocks. Much fun was had by all. Few more drinks, and a ghost story tour later, each finishing in “and it happened on a night, just like tonight” and we were allowed to sleep anywhere in the castle we liked. Some went outside, some by the fire, and the rest scattered around the rooms.

Having explored the castle in the dark, the next morning we had the opportunity to do it again but this time by light. Lots of pictures in the gallery, go have a look. The castle took significant damage by canon fire in the 17th century, when one of the Kings was being overthrown by civil war. You are only able to climb one of the towers, as one is completely destroyed and the other two are hollow shells. Only about ¼ of the castle remains in useable condition. The rest has no floors, ceilings, with only the stone walls, arches and foundations remaining.

Sunday
After having a final look around Bolton Castle, we packed up, and headed for Sherwood Forest for a bit of an exploration and a picnic lunch. Can’t say there’s much there, just trees. Surprising that.

On the way back to London we stopped off for a friendly round or two of Archery. I would just like to point out I bet Carmen :+) Then we arrived back in London about 9pm. Phew, it is exhausting just writing about it. A highly recommended trip!

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Flat Dinner the 2nd

Once again us and the flatties managed to go most of the month without seeing much of each other… it’s not intentional, just seems to happen like that with us all leading busy lives. After putting the flat dinner off 3 weeks in a row seen as someone always seemed to have something on, we finally got around to it last Tuesday (ok so this post is a week late - things have been busy.)

It was a wonderful evening in Brockey that should have been spent around Kate’s flash new BBQ that Aaron, Richard and I spent about 2 hours putting together the night before. (Upon arriving at work the next day, we discovered we had been very lucky indeed with many others being caught in torrential downpours and enduring journey’s of up to 5 hours to get home)

Unfortunately a lack of gas bottle meant that we had to revert to a poxy English disposable BBQ, but it ended up being a great evening spent with great people (including the 4 of us that live here and Ang, an Ozzie friend of Kates, who is an honourary flatmate), a lot of beer and a lot of food.

Finally, we’d like to thank Fosters for their sponsorship of this event (Kate won the BBQ and a years supply of Fosters among other things in a radio competition).

Hi Tori and Charlotte

Just wanted to say a big Hi to Tori and hope that the rest of your travels in England are going well. Tori stayed with us on Wednesday and Thursday nights, and it was awesome to catch up and hear all her stories about Prague (she was just happy to see TV in English). Unfortunately I was working during the day, but she managed to pack a whole heap in (Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Baker St etc) and I got to see her in the evenings.

Was also fantastic to spend Friday lunchtime with Tori and Charlotte (been here 2 weeks now) in Hyde Park. We've been having wonderful weather the last week, and I was so depressed to have to go back to work that arvo while they went off to see some more sights. Unfortunately I was a bit slack in remembering to take some photos, but those that know Tori knows what she looks like anyway and I'm sure she'll be sending out a big e-mail about England when she gets back to Prague.

11 August 2004. Well after me saying I was slack in taking photos, Tori decided to come back and stay for another couple of days the following week. Once again I was working during the day, but Tori managed to catch Romeo and Juliet at the globe (which is what she came back for) so I think she was pretty happy.

Leeds, Walkabout and Portobello Road

Last week, I got taken up to Leeds with work to run a recruitment centre with work. Caught a train up Monday, came back on Friday. Shocking thing was it cost £140 for transport. Leeds seems like a nice city, but then I only got to see the city at night. Work consisted of ferrying applicants into waiting rooms, into interviews and into technical scenario test rooms. I felt like a bellhop for the week.

Saturday morning, we headed to a Walkabout. It is a chain of pubs established for Ex-pat Kiwis, Ozzies, Boks and slowly integrating Zims. It is cheap booze, large tv screens and good atmosphere. Anyway, we headed in to watch the South Africa vs Australia rugby game. Ozzie won, good time by all.

In the after noon we headed to Portobello road. A famous street market I hear, you might have seen it in the movie Notting Hill. We had a good look around, there are some very cool nics ‘n’ knacks there, but nothing you would really want to buy or need. It was an exceptionally hot day, and after our up tenth drink, we decided it was to go home and lay in some sunshine or at least find some shade.