Mid week here. Pretty good weekend just gone. Work drinks Friday, then shot up to North London to catch up with Kara whose over on holiday from NZ. So stayed up there a while with Nix and Ali and Kara's mates. Sat morning woke up and talked to Ma & Pa, great to hear their voices! Headed up to Portobello Markets for a wander, bought a few knick knacks for the flat, not much else. Markets were pretty big really, (most of them are here, already spent a day discovering Camden Markets with Alistair a week or so ago), Portobello though [View Full Entry]

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Went to Scribe last night at "Neighbourhood" for Alistairs birthday. Was just like being at home! Room full of mainly kiwis, Montieths behind the bar (ooh that goes down so well!) and NZ hip hop blasting on a mega sound system. P-Money and Scribe were in FINE form, it made for an awesome night. Couple too many tequilas though which I felt this morning, but when you start at 9:30am, most of the hangovers gone! Quick update here on my flat. Moved into a place in Chiswick about a week ago. Nice, clean, warm place, right price. Set in a pretty [View Full Entry]

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Bank holiday weekend!!!! Every year London has the Notting Hill Carnival on this weekend. It all started back in the 60's when a half Russian, half Cherokee lady called Ronnie Lazlet organised a childrens carnival, getting a bunch of West Indian guys to play the steel pan. These guys started the day playing a set at a pub, then when they went to the carnival they told the crowd what they were doing. Everyone went along with them. They just decided to head up the street playing and people started coming out of the woodwork, singing and dancing and joining in! [View Full Entry]

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Started working here at C.T.A. around the end of August. Drawing shopping malls again, same as NZ, but much larger scale and all new stuff! Im the jammiest bugger, went from a good wage on High St in Auckland, to an even better wage (especially when you trebble it!) on Kensington High St in London! 150 staff here though, and a bit of a lumbering monster really, like the rest of the country. I swear, the red tape this country love tying around their neck amazes me that they ever colonised any, let alone most of the planet! Got a bit [View Full Entry]

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First weekend I was in town, Nix and Alistair took me to their local club for a night out. Was pretty quiet in there and we got talking to some of the DJs and the door girl and they invited us along to another couple of regular nights they worked. I decided a couple of weekends later to pop along to a gig over in Whitechapel. Nix and Ali werent up for it so off I wandered into the London night! Was a really good night! Got in cheap cause Kristina was on the door, Zaki and Georgia were playing in [View Full Entry]

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So there I was. Phil holding a ticket for me up North, all I needed to do was get myself up there! Grabbed a train on Friday night after work. (Quick aside here: At the train station, first time in my life Ive had to pay for a piss and what a delightful experience! 20p and only one of the turnstiles was working, of the 15 or so urinals, 5 of them were overflowing everytime they flushed, so they had buckets under them! All class!) On the train for an hour and a half, then grabbed the shuttle bus from Stafford [View Full Entry]

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Date of entry still a bit out. After meeting up with Shaune, an old UNITEC mate, I decided the best way forward was to set up a company and contract draft. I registered with an employment agency that Brooke put me onto and they had an interview for me the next day! Had been having trouble figuring out the new ipod, so shot down to the internet cafe to make sure I could show some examples of work and... wiped it! Went to the interview anyway and once I got a hold of some drawings to email them, got the job. [View Full Entry]

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Spent the first couple of weeks here doing the sight seeing thing, trying not to spend money. Sleeping for the first week was interesting, no Gena to cuddle up to, damn hot and muggy, (30deg days and 22deg nights), and Niki and Ali's flat is right above a busy North London St, buses screaming past, local boozers yelling shit all night long. First day went down to Islington and Angel for a wander, grab a phone card, use the internet. 2nd day went into Oxford St for a bit of light shopping and a wander through Hyde Park. Really great sunny [View Full Entry]

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Again, bogus entry date, still trying to catch up! Ah England! Landed at Heathrow about 9pm local time, breezed through this joint. Not as flash as Hong Kong, no one around, past the sour faced customs woman, (realise now that's a standard look for Londoners), grab my bags and buy an A-Z. Alistair had given me basic directions to their place, so I ssked directions to the tube, bought my ticket from the machine and we were off! Had to change from 1 line to another half way through, got a little confused, asked some girls for help and was sorted. [View Full Entry]

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Just changed blog servers, so this is the start of the overall experience again! This is the overview of events so far. I left NZ on Cathay Pacific on 26? July 2004 amidst a flurry of late arrivals, tears and gifts (woohoo!). Sat on the plane on the runway for an hour or so whilst they replaced a fuel filter, (nothing like building that confidence in yr airline!). Funnily enough, I got seated next to another Kiwi girl off to do the same thing as I, on almsot the exact same itinary! So that was great, chatted to Anna for a [View Full Entry]

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