Well since the last update, I have been on the go non-stop. There haven’t been any overseas trips, and it feels like ages since my last one. I looked at my diary and it was May the 8th, so only 6 weeks! I don’t know how I am going to cope when I eventually make it back to New Zealand. But in the last 6 weeks, I have seen a lot more of the UK, met some really cool people, and had one very painful experience, but I will get to that in due course. After Menorca, the next event on [View Full Entry]

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Well since the last update, I’ve managed trips to two continents, flying across the Atlantic to Los Angeles for a week, and just recently, a long weekend in Menorca, a gorgeous island off the coast of Spain. First things first though and it was off on my 10 hour flight across the pond to be quizzed by a thoroughly intelligent individual obviously doing customs work as a night job from his regular job at MENSA........ Apparently because I am entering the country, therefore I must be a terrorist. I have met many American’s who give their country a good name, but [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Derry, we headed north up to the coast. Our first stop was the Giant’s Causeway where Susie, Brooke, Sam and I took the scenic route along the cliff for some amazing views. The Causeway is actually a set of rocks all shaped hexagonally that originally stretched all the way to Scotland until the seas rose leaving Ireland as an island apart from Britain. This has given rise to several myths about how the Causeway was created. The main one being there were two 'champions'. One of Scotland and one from Ireland. Finn McCool, a 6 foot 2 man from Ireland [View Full Entry]

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Right, I’m back from Ireland and have managed to survive with my liver intact. Actually I didn’t once wake up with a hangover, which I think is more down to the lack of preservatives in the locally brewed Guinness than any lack of alcohol consumption. Also this blog is going to be separated in 2. Half because I did so much and there are a lot of photos, and half because I want one for Ireland and one for Northern Ireland. Alright, the 10 day trip started with getting up very early on a Saturday morning to catch a coach out [View Full Entry]

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After the sun and surf of Southern Spain, it was back to reality in London. Well sort of. It was a good week to come back as Wednesday was Waitangi Day, and I think Waitangi Day (like most other national holidays) is celebrated with a lot more passion when you are actually out of the country. The Australians would definitely agree from what I saw a week or so back on Australia Day. So for the actual day, I went around to Alaina’s place. And boy, had she been busy! We had a fantastic roast dinner followed by dessert of Pavlova [View Full Entry]

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Granada. Yes, the small Spanish town of Granada was my first overseas trip of the New Year. It was quite exciting just for the fact that it was an 'unplanned weekend away’. Leah I were talking about it one Saturday night as something we would like to do at some stage. 12 hours later it was booked and in less than two weeks, we would be flying off there! But first things first, since New Years, it has been an extremely busy time. We have seen Stew, and then Steve finish their European jaunts and head back to the best summer [View Full Entry]

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After reading Leah's very bubbly blog, mine is going to be a little bit more sober. Before our New Years trip to Paris and Normandy, Leah and I wondered whether Paris would be able to live up to our expectations. For Leah, Paris was a city she had dreamed about visiting since she was a kid, and for me, it was a city that I had heard rivals Rome, so high standards indeed. On the way back to the train station to Eurostar as we left Paris, Leah and I compared notes and came to the conclusion that Paris was missing [View Full Entry]

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Following our very successful weekend in Amsterdam, it was back to work, and the countdown to Christmas. 14 working days to be precise. It is looking to be a very busy period with Leah’s birthday, her party, heading up to Leeds, several Christmas parties and also Steve and Stew arriving over here for a visit from NZ. The following week from Amsterdam, I had tickets to go and see Marilyn Manson, who put on a fantastic show, complete with American shooting and Nazi references, and burning a bible on stage. It was goth central there and I had a great time. [View Full Entry]

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Well after somehow (‘ahem’) getting time off work, I embarked on a 4 day weekend to my first non-British country since leaving sunny Spain and Portugal 4 long months ago. Just thinking back to the sun and the beaches, it seems like a lot longer! Anyway, Friday morning, Ben and I made our way to the miniature plane that took across the Channel and dumped us into Amsterdam. We didn’t have much time to appreciate it before we headed up to our first destination of Utrecht. Utrecht was only about half an hour outside of Amsterdam, but was a quiet(ish) pretty [View Full Entry]

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After the defeat at Cardiff, I had to suffer the agony all over again every day of the week. Unfortunately I was the token Kiwi in an office full of English who were celebrating their upset win over Australia. So when the World Cup final rolls around, it will be the first final not to have one of the Bledisloe nations contesting. After Fiji also lost, my support went to South Africa by default. This is despite the fact that they would have bragging rights of winning 2 World Cups to our 1 (Despite them only winning in ‘95 due to [View Full Entry]

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