http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Beanster/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Beanster en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:27:55 +0000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:27:55 +0000 Little street lovely restaurant and my favourite kind of traffic on foot and attractive. At one point the scene is practically out of a film set two girls calling up to a friend on a balcony a guy on an old bike meandering with baguette in hand a couple walking together hand in hand and the obligatory welldressed mother with 2 happy kids. The shutters around here are a lovely pastel blue http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-441271.html Gawd it's been a busy summer Festivals football and tango have the been the order of the day for some time now much to our enjoyment. The last four months have been a period during which we have felt very happy to be here in the UK taking full advantage of what we came for Europe London and culture. Festivals have punctuated our summer with 2 in London and one in the mother of all festiva http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Ealing/blog-441206.html As always a word on transport. A sane person might safely assume that at 5 am on a Friday an airport would be if not an oasis of tranquillity then certainly uncrowded. How wrong we were Stansted was packed heaving with Brits going away on stag dos. We spotted at least four of these groups who had had the original idea of wearing tshirts bearing quips like lsquoDangerous Daversquos Sta http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Lesser-Poland/Krakow/blog-424703.html Our love affair with Wales continues. I found a cottage with my usual thrift and speed a week later we were off to the West with Eesvan and Ro a doctor and a lawyer. They're not as bad as they sound.We picked said individuals up from Oxford and forged ahead. Things got amusing when the normally infallible Tomtom started to play up having decided we felt peckish we instructed the machine to f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Tenby/blog-414556.html A few weeks ago we engaged in a splendidly British activity houseboating on a canal. Our friends Eesvan and Ro had been planning this for a while and after several attempts it all came together on an unseasonally sunny Sunday. In the morning we gathered raincoats snacks and friends into the houseboat. After a cursory lesson on manoeuvring and not breaking things we were let loose with severa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Oxfordshire/Oxford/blog-411772.html What a portentous beginning... Two things have happened the days are getting much much longer and we both have jobs. The difference this makes cannot be underestimated we have more energy we are generally happier and more relaxed about spending money and we are finally at the point where we no longer look fearfully at the bank account every couple of days. I am playing more football. Mon ha http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/South-Yorkshire/blog-404022.html Sorry that's the best I could come up with. References to That Movie end here. Salzburg is beautiful and the airport is close two factors which make it utterly recommendable in my book. Furthermore our first discovery was that public transport is absurdly cheap rendering our hotel's distance from town irrelevant. It was 3 euros 20 for 24 hours of travel on the electric buses.So Salzburg is ol http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Salzburg-State/Salzburg/blog-392629.html I've just finished a monthlong contract at a hair product company in Soho during which I was able to enjoy the privileges of commuting all the while knowing there was a light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. As most of you will know London's Tube is a strange place. It silences everyone me included. I have tried to make a virtue of saying 'bless you' when someone sneezes but more often http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Ealing/blog-387367.html Arrr the countryside. I will join the no doubt embarrassing quantities of kiwis who think they've come home upon arrival in North Wales no real motorways hills and mountains proper beaches and wild walks... We had rented a little cottage for a ridiculous sum and went on little trips to explore. We soon discovered that Wales had something more castles They dot the countryside a testament t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Snowdon/blog-381825.html Mon got confirmation about a new contract the next day we were on a plane to Amsterdam. Our flat is amazingly handy to Heathrow which means stressfreeish travel. We took the bus to the Leidesplein where we'd booked a place and began our exploration. Amsterdam lends itself well to walking smallish almost devoid of cars and full of scenic canals. We perused the main drags along with every http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-381821.html Our latest dispatch was from gay Paree where we blissfully ignored our lack of employment and touristed away. One thing I didn't mention is that we didn't buy a singel thing and Mon is a female Amaaaaazing. So the whole jobless thing has hit home in a big way. After realising that posttaxes we were worth all of 12 euros about 300 quid austerity measures were put in place. Our draconian bu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Ealing/blog-371073.html It's wonderful it really is. Go there at once. The food the people le doggypoop...But wait. Before we start on the place itself I deem it necessary to engage in a little transport wheeze as I have been prone to doing. This time we focus on the Eurostar. The whole shemozzle really started when we saw ads for 59 quid return tickets NZ67 given current pound downfall and thought 'we're unempl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/blog-365059.html We are both bums at the moment Mon finished her contract on the 22nd and I've been unemployed since November.Christmas was wonderful Mum made a superspecial effort to make the house feel festive and food was superb and plentiful. Presents were followed by coffee and croissants memorable loot included a Denby teapot for Mon and rugby tickets for me among other things. Our South African fr http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/West-Yorkshire/blog-365039.html Not... I'm back in the UK after the 20 day mission around the home country. The wedding went splendidly I successfully handed over the rings and was not overly drunk during my speech. This blog is more of an excuse to post the few measly pictures I took during the trip. I am currently 'inbetween jobs' which means that I am unconvincingly looking for work half resigned to the idea that finding http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Ealing/blog-351631.html ...hits the ground running buys some football boots gets buried by jetlag zaps to the south a zoom to the north... Yep it's the obligatory tripbackforamateswedding. Almost an essential part of any selfrespecting OE this involves a return to the land of one's fathers for a manic 2 to 3 weeks of frantically seeing everyone followed by a wedding. I however chose to avoid all this and go on a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/Parnell/blog-348941.html Well we try again. The UK mark II. We have now moved into a lovely flat 5 minutes from the center of Ealing Broadway which has the right mix of nice bars and eclecticism. Mon has a new job. I've quit mine. We got engaged. I'm returning to NZ for 3 weeks or so. It's all on We are still marvelling at the awesomeness of our new place it's cosy homely and has a giant attic for Lego storage as http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Ealing/blog-336627.html Well it's been something silly like 6 months almost and we're still not quite there but it's coming I can feel it. We hope to move out in a month or so to Ealing Broadway. Mon has a job You probably all know this but it's big and we like it. She's right in town big commute but it's worth it because it's a job where she'll learn a heck of a lot. It's in procurement analysis whatever that http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Berkshire/Windsor/blog-330207.html Well more or less. It's taken 6 weeks but I'm finally feeling human again ie not exhausted at 10 pm every night. Work is beginning to make sense about time really. The complete lack of blogs or communication for that matter is entirely due to this imposition on my time and energy motivated by my compulsive greed. I joke if I were motivated by greed I would be doing umm... something wh http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Berkshire/Windsor/blog-317840.html ... since I wrote anything so here is an entry off the cuff. I am working and as you know learning a new job is tiring and quite sucky. So my last few weeks have been tiring and sucky. Meanwhile Mon has no job I have money but no time and Mon has time but no money except that she could choose to spend my money if she so desired.I had a few weeks in Glasgow punctuated by a quick visit to Ed http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Berkshire/Windsor/blog-309114.html At the interview they said they should be able to let me know by the end of the week. The next day I had the job We decided that despite the icky forecast we should embark on a little jaunt somewhere to take advantage of my soontobecurtailed freedom. The aforementioned employment is with a company of 10 people that imports dairy products from Germany and Poland. I'll be in charge of keeping http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Norfolk/Norwich/blog-298691.html