After pulling myself from the newly acquired Nintendo Wii, we went to Bath for New Years.

While waiting (and waiting and waiting) for my Visa application to be processed, the trips have been limited. The paperwork was in the post within 24 hours of being back from Moscow, and only just over a month before my visa expired and I was going to be facing deportation (OK, maybe that's a little extreme, but I wouldn't be going anywhere as they wouldn't let me back into the country).

With limited options, it was time to put the tent into use. Braving the english weather, I set off with a group of other kiwi's and ozzies, some friends and some friends to be, to New Forest, which is kinda between our house and the coast. This is where NZ puts the expectations up, because I had visions of a west coast type forest, not just a whole bunch of trees, but it was nice to escape for a while. Aaron was in full study mode, and had a course on Saturday, so I left him to it at home.

Arriving at the campsite, it was raining - and after trying to last it out in the car for an hour, we finally decided to brave it and put the tents up in the rain, and then half an hour later it stopped. The campsite was relatively close to the coast (5 mins drive, 1/2 hour walk) and with time to kill we went for a walk and ended up muddy up to the knees. By the time we got back, everyone else had arrived and we set up their tents and settled in chilling out for the evening.

The rest of the weekend was much the same - chilling, drinking, chucking a ball around, playing hacky, going for walks etc and then it was time to head home again on Sunday afternoon. Nice to get away and get some fresh air, but hoping for some more sunshine next time.

BTW, for those still waiting in anticipation - I got my Visa, so it's another 2 years before they can kick me out... actually, in all seriousness, in 2 years time, if I haven't had enough by then, I have to prove my 'financial stability' and they'll let me stay as long as I want.

Having friends spread around the country is always a good excuse to travel and with Ken, a friend from Uni, currently living and working in Bristol, the rest of us didn't need much prompting to invite ourselves along... It was planned, as all good plans are, over alcohol at the Waitangi Day Pub Crawl.

Lisa and Corde (more uni friends) met up in London on Friday night and caught the train across on Friday morning and Aaron and I had an early start to drive across on Saturday morning. That afternoon, we headed to Wales (just across the bridge) for a pub lunch and to play in a Castle, Chepstow to be specific.
Chepstow Castle is quite large and you can see how it has been built up over time to grow to the size it is now. For those history buffs, check out http://www.castlewales.com/chepstow.html

Saturday evening was spent eating, drinking and generally being merry (can't tell you much more than that, cos I can't remember, though safe to say that it was getting messy by the end of the night).

Sunday, we had wonderful plans to get up and head to Bath, but the weather spoiled that one, so we went for a wander around Bristol in the daylight before heading for home.

Well not quite, but flaming Barrels of death! Taking a day off work, we grabbed Corde, or he grabbed us and we set forth on a mini weekend road trip. Heading out from our place we went to Ottery St Mary for Guy Fawkes night.

This sleepy little town hosts a Tar Barrel festival every year. Each of the 9 pubs in town sponsors a couple of barrels each. These full size wine barrels have been soaking in Tar to make them burn hotter and longer. The 'contestants' then take it in turn to lift the barrel onto their shoulders, (they have very thick protective gloves and back padding) and run around with the barrel. There is some bizarre scoring in there somewhere, but we weren't interested in that aspect of the night.

The craziest thing about this was the fact that they were running through the crowd. Not a light sprinkling of people but tens of thousands packed into the small cramp streets. As they run through the street, the crowd parts only meters before them like the Red Sea before Moses. There are flames, sparks and burning embers flying everywhere. People are getting burnt, clothes ruined, crushed in the crowd, all the time cheering on the contestants. Awesome!! La Tomatina was crazy on the scale of people and amount of tomatoes. This was just stupidity. I'm going back next year!

Oh yeaa, there was a bonfire and a mini fair ground.

Eden Project
The next day, nursing our burns and tattered clothing, we headed further southwest into Cornwell to the Eden Project. It is a collection of Bio-domes, each with a different artificial climate. Don't get me wrong, this was impressive, but I was expecting more. The domes did hold different climates, but I was expecting a very scientific angel of the whole site. More of a grand scale experiment, not just a tourist trap, which it was. You don't get overly stung on admission, but it was actually designed as a tourist attraction, not a scientific experiment. Which on some level I found rather disappointing.

It is October; winter is well and truly on its way on this side of the world. It is dark when we get up and it is threatening to frost each morning now. It is time for an update.

Things I cannot live without, the internet. Since we moved flats we have been net-deprived. Lack of email exposure, no posts on Slowlane.net, no checking the train timetables, no theaa.com for car directions, no keeping an eye out for cheap trips/house goods, no ebay.com and no news of the outside world. It truly is a primitive world we live in.

Carmen slipped the last two posts in just to keep things ticking over. But, we have been quite busy of late. The main events are listed below in a little more detail. I finished my first year of accountancy exams (bean counter extraordinaire), we bought a house, been floating around and are planning on going to Egypt in one weeks time.

House
Some had been wondering if we were sick of travelling by our lack of adventures of late. Fear not, we just needed to save hardcore for a few months in order to save enough for a deposit on our little semi-detached maisonette apartment. It is in Redhill, the same town we were flatting in, this still allows both Carmen and I easy travel to and from work.

So what did we get? It is a newly converted apartment i.e. It was a house and the last owner split it into a top and ground floor apartment. We are on the top floor, 1 bedroom, 1 living room, 1 bathroom and finally the kitchen. It is clean, simple and in our price range (£130,000). It is very tidy and only need a few cosmetic alterations, like curtains and a mirror in the bathroom. (more photos: Front door, Living room and bathroom)

A1 Grand Prix
After having our own race to get to the circuit on time for the start, we were highly impressed with the A1. Great atmosphere of everyone supporting their home country team, flags waving and lots of chanting. The cars looked great on the track and there were even a few crashes to keep things lively. Ended up with a small group of us camped with a very good vantage point giving us view of about ¼ of the track. Will be a series to follow.

Steve and Jane’s Engagement party
Steve and Jane got engaged a few months ago and have finally had their engagement party. We made the small trip across to Wales to the mostly family event. We do have photos, but they are at home, where we are internet-less. So they will come later. It was a lot of fun and good to see the two of them happy and relaxed. The best to both of you.

I can now officially say that I am NOT one of those people that never win anything. Somehow, I managed to win a trip away for 6 people to Norfolk, including accomodation in a Teepee, entrance tickets to the Deepdale Jazz and Ale Festival and a day of Kite Buggy lessons.

After a couple of iterations of people (damn work getting in the way), Lisa, Nick, Corde, Caroline, Aaron and I all arrived at Burnham Deepdale on Thursday night ready for the weekend. We got told off for being too noisy within 10 minutes of arriving, but apart from that the first night was relatively uneventful.

Friday morning we awoke to hear rain falling on the Teepee. Never good when you are supposed to be learning how to Kite Buggy, but by the time we started our lesson in the Lazy Lounge Cafe at 10am with Carl and Trev learning about the 'Wind Window' and 'Power Band', it had stopped raining and by the time we hit the beach, we had near-on perfect conditions for Kite Buggying.

We spent the morning learning how to control the kites without the buggy, and finding out just how much power was in the different sizes, then in the afternoon it was time to get going. We all had a go and came away buzzing. Corde said the speedo was reading 18 miles/hr for him (none of the rest of us got a chance to look down). I think the coolest thing about it is that it probably wasn't something any of us would've done if we hadn't won the competition.

Friday night, windburnt and hungry, we sent the boys to the supermarket and cranked up the barbie. After a few drinks and many sausages, we had made friends with half the campsite and they all joined us in our teepee to toast marshmellows.

Saturday, and we were off to the Deepdale Jazz and Real Ale Festival. Another lucky day with the weather and even though it was bloody cold, the rain did hold off. Some of the music was really great with everyone up dancing and having a great time. The guys started off the day with a plan to get through the 25 ales on offer, but after coming across a couple with 'unique' tastes, that plan was scrapped. Saturday night, another barbie and cards by candlelight in the teepee.

On Sunday morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we said goodbye to Nick and Lisa as they headed off to launch a rocket (yes, seriously) and we headed off for a drive and walk along the Norfolk coast before heading home. Thanks to TNT Magazine and Deepdale Farm for the brilliant prize. Check out the rest of the photos here.

You might think the are an odd combination, but they go together in a bank holiday weekend quite well. Last weekend, we went to the wedding of James and Catherine. James is a mate from work. It was one of those picture perfect weddings, the church service was a good length and looked fantastic. After which we moved onto the reception, which was held at Addington palace. Don't be fooled by the name, it is nothing like the suburb in Christchurch. Lots of people, dancing and more food and booze then you could know what to do with. Congratulations guys.

The next day we drove across to Wales, staying with Steve and Jane (Congratulations on the engagement by the way!!). From here we made our way across to Coopers Hill, Gloucester. This is where the traditional cheese rolling competition is held. Back in the day, farmers used to race down the hill to determine who could use the hill for grazing. Now it is chaotic spectacle for competitors and spectators alike. Over four races, a special guest rolls a large (approx 30cm diameter) locally made cheese down the hill. Then 20-25 competitors tear off down the hill in hot pursuit, crashing, tumbling and basically just falling down the hill. The hill is so steep; people trying to traverse across it afterwards would end up falling down the hill. Over the four races 5 people were carted to hospital for various injuries. Why didn't we go in it? Well we wanted to, but.. we slept in, meaning we arrived just as the first race begun. In true European fashion, it was packed, over 4000 spectators and each run was limited to 20-25 people, so we joined a few hundred at the top, trying to get a go, but alas. Just another cemented lesson/example of having to get to any event in Europe at the crack of dawn in order to get a go/view, simply due to the population. Still, a fantastically amusing event to watch. Download Movie of CheeseRolling (1mb)

It's a dangerous thing to offer a thread of hospitality to a travelling kiwi... I do keep warning people that if they are going to offer to have me to stay that I will take them up on that and that's what I did.

An old friend of mine from high school, Luther, is currently working over here for a couple of months on a secondment thingy from his company in NZ. He's based up near Manchester but has been travelling the UK fixing minor screw-ups around the place.

Travelled up on the train on Friday afternoon arriving at about 5ish, Luther picked me up from the station and we headed to Manchester to check out the sights. Not always the best plan when it's dark, but at least now I can say I've been there. We ended up wandering the streets, generally lost, before stumbling on a huge chinese restaurant. The rest of the evening was spent drinking wine, eating and generally catching up on old times.

Luther had done his research and we were lucky that it was the opening weekend of Alton Towers themepark. So that's where we headed when we got up on Saturday morning. It was a bit cold and a bit windy, but stayed dry all day (making it the best day they've had up there for about 2 weeks). Even though it was opening day, there were still hardly any people there and the longest queue we waited in was about 15mins.

They have some pretty cool rides there, some that I remember from last time I was in England (back in 7th form) and some new ones. Memorable rides were the Nemesis (roller-coaster where the track is above you), Air (similar to Nemesis but you travel like you're flying), and Oblivion (plunging into a black hole).

Sunday, after a bit of a sleep-in, we headed to Donington Park (close to Nottingham) to see the first race of the season for the motorbikes. It was all pretty quiet there, but we did also manage to find a toy fair, which took up most of the morning. Not big on motorbikes, but it was good to say that I've been to Donington Park - Luther will be able to tell you what sort of bikes were there, so harrass him to comment, if you're interested.

That was the weekend, and then it was back on the train for the long journey home. Thanks for having me Luther!

This weekend just past was going to be a laid back, relaxing and soothing few days of rest from the riggers of work. But, I forgot Carmen had other things planned. We started off on Saturday morning by trucking into town to EasyCar to hire a car. After walking into an underground car park, we started to look around for the rental office, before it drove up beside us and parked. Looking sideways at the little man inside (who wouldn't let us take his photo) we gave him some cash and took the keys.

Although an ongoing theme, we had finally made the decision over Christmas, that we were going to have to find a flat in Croydon / Redhill as soon as possible so that Carmens work journey was less than an hour instead of 1:45+ each way. After a couple of weeks fluffing around we were driving to Redhill to drop in on some agents to get a flat. We looked around; they weren't to bad, small, around the £550 - £650 /m mark but most importantly, close to the train station. No decisions made =(

After spending the better part of the day in Redhill, we drove out to Carmens work Xmas function (yes after Xmas). Food was good, people were friendly and the setting was great - except for the fact it was in the middle of the whoops. As soon as the food was consumed, unlike most of these functions the crowd bolted for the dance floor. I was shocked...80% of the people were on the floor by the end of the first song.

Next morning, changing the EasyCar contract online to unlimited miles, we decided to make the most of it and head out to Stone Henge. Few hours to cross London then a few more hours on the other side, we got to Stone Henge about lunch time. It is pretty impressive, although not massive, you can't but be bewildered by the fact these stones were dragged hundreds of miles as far away as Wales. Surrunding the Henge are burial mounds, scattered in no particular order over a large area. You aren't allowed to go up to and paw them so after looking at the rocks on the ground, we had heard about another less famous rock formation about 20 miles north at Avbury. Avbury is about the same age as Stone Henge, 5000 years old. While, Stone Henge is about 20 meters in diameter, the outer circle at Avbury is about 200 meters, with smaller formations inside the outer circle. The whole arrangement is encircled by a 10 meter deep ditch which is as old as the construction. You can touch these ones! To be honest, although there are a lot more stones and a larger formation, the stones have not been shaped into the rectangles you know at Stone Henge, and they aren't any on top of each other. So I personally found it less impressive, but still cool.

By the time we returned the car, we had clocked up about 350miles in the two days, which amounted to about 20% of the one-month-old rental cars total distance travelled. I smiled.

Straight after work, we jumped on a train to my great-half removed-second (to be honest I cannot remember where they fit into the family tree) Uncle and Aunts. Although only an hour out of London, it is very quiet and relaxing up there. I think it will definitely be a weekend escape location if we want to 'just get out of the city'. They did offer us to come back any time, so we will try and hold them to the offer.

Incredibly nice people, and very welcoming. Lynda, Howard and their son Gary (who we stayed with for the first couple of weeks when we arrived in the UK) gave us a toured guide around the local area. Including St. Ives where Oliver Cromwell was born and started his revolt against the Monarchy. Apparently even to this day the Royal family wont visit St. Ives because of its history. There isn't much to St. Ives apart from the limerick, so you take that away and it disappears from the map and just becomes another little town.

We found Cambridge very much like Oxford. A town completely based around the University. The University was very impressive, unlike Oxford we could look around some parts of it. We were able to go into Kings College church, which is lined with stained glass windows, and intricate stone and wood work over the entire building. Unfortunately you were not allowed to take photos inside so, we will simple have to try and remember what we saw.

The other highlight of Cambridge was watching the amateur punting. Some people simply do not have co-ordination. They were losing their poles, crashing into each other, the walls and the over hanging bridges.

Some more photos here, and there will be some more coming soon, so check back in a week. The added benefit of checking back next week is you will be able to see this weekends trip to Scotland.

Well I'm feeling a bit homesick with race-season starting at home, so there was nothing else for it but to plan an excursion to a race-track. So I started looking into it and there just happened to be a race-meeting at Brands Hatch on the 2nd and 3rd of October. Coincidently, a couple of the guys that were out for the Formula Ford season in NZ last year were racing in the Formula Ford championship here - Joe D'Agostino and Charlie Kimbell.

Anyhow, I managed to convince (didn't take much) Nat and Shannon, another couple of kiwi motorsport enthusiasts that we've met since we arrived here to come down for the day as well. It's not easily accessible by public transport, so we hired a car and split the costs. After a series of small disasters, we still managed to arrive in time to see the first race just finishing so that was pretty good considering...

The circuit is the best circuit I've ever been to as a spectator with multiple viewpoints that allowed you to see the whole circuit. As they were only using the short track, the laptimes were all sub 1 minute even in the rain, and the short track is more like a karting track from home with lots of hill - some of them very steep. The weather was pretty awful, rainy and cold (just standard for a race-track I'm hearing my family say), but we were well prepared.

Racing was all pretty interesting, with the rain making for a few dicey moments. There are also quite a few options to pass on the track, and with the spectators being able to see the full track - you could always find an interesting battle in the field to watch.

All and all a good day out, but hoping it won't be raining next time we head down.

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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Saturday night, we cruised on into town on a late train from our day in Oxford. Our accommodation was hooked up at a local bed & breakfast / pub, the ‘Crown and Castle’. It was only £30 for the two of us including breakfast. Which is very good, it was looking like costing us that to stay in a dorm room of bunks at the local backpackers in Oxford with out breakfast, bedding, warmth or sleep. Breakfast was a nice array of fatty foods, fried eggs, sausages, hash browns, bacon, toast, and a few other bits and bobs,.. I loved it :+)

Warwick Castle was having a ‘Medieval Festival’ at the time we went which meant there were a few extra events on at the castle. It costs £8 each with our £5 off each coupon we had found (some would say hunted for). Upon entering you greeted with a fantastic view of the outer wall with towers on the corners. (Trust me, you get no concept of scale in this picture). This is the front of the castle, the back is on a small cliff which falls down to a river (Picture). From the top tower (called Guy’s Tower), you can see how high you are, and how easier it would have been to spit on door to door salesmen as they came up to the gatehouse and barbican. Shortly I will add a panoramic of the inside courtyard (if I have time and can figure out the software).

As part of the festival they had a jousting tournament. It was very entertaining to watch, although choreographed. They showed various skills of jousting, like collecting hoops on the end of the pole, hitting those swinging dumbies with a sack of grain on the other arm. They also had an archer is tradition dress, with old school bow. He missed his target about 9/10 times. His excuse was that in those days it didn't matter, they charged with so many people you would hit someone anyway.

Check out the Warwick photo Gallery here.

Setting out early in the morning, we caught the train to Oxford. It is nice to catch an express train, the difference can be 2 hours or more. With the plan of looking around and staying the night, we started looking for some local accommodation so we could set off and not worry about it later. It turned out a good thing we started looking because there was none. None in Oxford and none in the surrounding towns or villages. The number of tourists in Oxford was amazing, they were everywhere. On the verge of giving up, we decided to ring Warwick information to see if there was any there, there was, we booked it, we were set.

Oxford is a pretty small town, and is as you would imagine completely built around the University (the first one in England). The story goes, some time back in the day, England had a falling out with France (as we all do) and weren’t allowed to send pupils to University there, so a local one was established. We got on an open top double decker all day ‘jump on, jump off’ tourist bus. It was good, it went to all the University colleges, Museums and anything of interest with a live guide giving very good commentary. There isn’t much to say really, we saw lots of colleges, all stone and all pretty old. I think I am starting to get adjusted to very old stone work/buildings and am just not finding it as impressive which it is.

After our touring of Oxford, we finished the perfect day of weather by strolling up and down a very thin Thames lined with house boats.

Check out the other Oxford photos here.

We have arrived in the mother country. The Black Eyed Peas were very good in concert, and it was worth hanging around Bangkok another day. Another bonus of sticking around was that I had told Gary (My cousin) the wrong day to pick us up from the airport at Hethrow so the extra day worked in perfectly with the incorrect dates I had given him.

Gary flats is very cool, just the sort of thing we hope to find to rent (if we can afford it), two bedroom, living room, kitchen + bathroom. Pretty typical flat layout but decent sized rooms.

Yesterday we managed to get our bank accounts open, recieved our debit and credit cards from HSBC bank. Of note, there are no fees on anything. No monthly fees, no transaction or use charges, so thats all very sweet and a tad different from the huge NZ bank fees. (Only fees are if you go into overdraft or use the card outside of the UK)

This is by far the furtherest I have been away from home.. and I'm not sure I can get any further. I quite like London, from my first impressions, all the building are very large, old and look classy. We got a day pass on the underground yesterday and it was very easy to get around, so we sort of played monopoly and went to all the usual places like Piccidilly, Regents Park, Pall Mall, Kings cross etc..

I have job interview this afternoon, and another tomorrow, so we have offically started to look for jobs online and through agencies. We will let you know how we get on.