I managed to finish my Christmas shopping ready to send back to NZ on Monday plus book our New Years trip to Edinburgh for the Hogmanay Festival. Monday night I was back at Bar Salsa, and convinced Klaus to come and check it out as well. I started looking for a new flat to live in, as our current flat will be renovated and we have to move out by 12th January. However, I have not found anything promising yet. I received a call from out client at Thames Water on Wednesday asking for the Specification Document, associated plans and drawings [View Full Entry]

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Following our exhausting trip to Paris, we all found it a bit hard to stay awake on Monday, but with the help of a few hot chocolate and a Mars Bar, I managed to get through the day long enough to get my train back home. Brendan headed back down to Southampton on Tuesday, after having a nice sleep-in while the rest of us were working. I squeezed in a bit of shopping at the local High Wycombe shops at lunch time on Wednesday, and caught up with Emily (Irene’s niece) who had popped back to London following more travels around [View Full Entry]

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We got up with a bit of a struggle at 4.30am, and quickly walked down to Lancaster Gate Tube Station at 5am while it was still rather dark. The tube station was shut even though the first tube is meant to be at 5.11am. We decided to walk up to Marble Arch Tube Station, which was also closed. For lack of a direct bus, and the fact that time was passing rather quickly, we jumped in a taxi and headed down to the Embankment Tube Station to meet everyone else going on the tour to Paris to watch the All Blacks [View Full Entry]

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I got up early for another day of work. There was a bit of a queue for the ticket, and missed my train. I also missed the one after it by a matter of minutes - or part there of - which was a little annoying as the train was still in the station when I went to get on it! I was directed to another train on platform 4, and managed to get to MWH not too late. At lunch time I went across to Morrison to get some food and found myself buying some pot plants for my desk [View Full Entry]

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Nick managed to wake us up at 2.30am. We slowly stirred out of bed, put some clothes on and jumped into the waiting taxi outside. We drove out to Stansted Airport to catch our 6.25am flight to Berlin. We arrived in Berlin at about 9am and got through customs without any bother. We caught a U-bahn (train) to Warschauer Straße and checked into the Sunflower Hostel, which will be our home for the next few days. With the boys as our tour guides, we accidentally got off the trains a stop or two too early at ‘Berlin-Ostbahnhof’, and found ourselves wandering [View Full Entry]

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I had a bit of a sleep in on Sunday and then headed down to the Leicester Square WalkAbout to watch the All Blacks vs England game with Beth, Helen, Grant, Josh, Leigh and Glenn etc. Ben, the ‘token’ English supporter, met us there to watch a convincing NZ win (20-41) After the game Beth, Helen, Grant, Josh and I went back to Shepherd’s Bush and bought a big box of fireworks on the way :) We had dinner, Josh made us a tasty chicken stir-fry, and then dug in to Grant’s Belgium chocolates for dessert. We headed down to the [View Full Entry]

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I got up at the rather early time of 6.30am and got ready for my first day at work for MWH! I left home at 7.30am and made my way down to Marylebone Train Station in hope to catch the 7.53 train, but missed it by about 2 minutes! Thankfully there are regular trains to High Wycombe, so caught the 7.59 train instead. I read my Bill Bryson book ‘Notes from a Small Island’ that Ben had given me for Christmas last year on the way. I decided to start reading the book again, as now I am a lot more [View Full Entry]

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My last few days of freedom were spent showing Brian around all the touristy stuff in London… I met Brian at the Marble Arch tube station just before lunch for Hannah’s London Tour - Volume 1. I took him for a walk through Hyde Park and showed him the new NZ memorial, near the Duke of Wellington Archway, that is to be unveiled in a few weeks. We walked down though Green Park to Buckingham Palace, had a look around and took some cheesy tourist photos. Then walked through St James Park, Horse’s Guards Parade and along to Big Ben and [View Full Entry]

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Monday - hopefully my last interview! Well, for now - as I have to make a decision this week!! I got up early and headed to Waterloo Train Station. On my way I got a call from my agent at RGB following my e-mail to him this morning. He assured me that the place I was going to were not just land contamination experts, but also did general engineering as well. Anyways, it was too late to pull out now. While I was waiting for my train I grabbed a sandwich and received a call from James in NZ. We chatted [View Full Entry]

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I woke up at 9.00am and got a call at 9.15am from Julian at RGB recruitment, wanting me to come in and see him today to discuss jobs - how exciting! I arrived a little bit early, so had a look around Hamley’s Toy Store while I waited - I love that place! My interview with Julian took about 1 hour. We discussed all the things that I had done previously and what kind of work I was looking for over here, which seemed to go well. While I was in the interview, I missed call from Natalie at Anders Elite, [View Full Entry]

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