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Published: November 6th 2006
Dunstable
Our House... Its a lot nicer on the inside..!I finally saw Byron play a game of English Midlands 1 Rugby! I got up early and went on the bus ride with the boys, feeling VERy outnumbered! But I go off at Milton Keynes (about 30mins away) where a few other players were getting picked up from and Sarah (the pyshio) picked me up and we went shopping at the massive shopping centre in Milton Keynes. It was VERY BIG! Like double the size of the Canerra Centre, and there is this section aross the street that has a massive Snow Dome, it has 3 runs down a manmade slope! Pretty coooool!! But anyway, i managed to restrain myself, i only bought 1 top which was in the 'designer sale shop' and so was only £15! We hung around there for a bit and then headed to the rugby, it should have taken about 1:20hrs but we missed out Junction 7 (?) turn off and so ended up a few towns up from where we were going! But we looked at he map and found a new route so got there without to much hassle, we did have to stop and ask one elderly couple for directions once we were
Dunstable
Our Street in Walsall, im not sure we were any better off after talking to them as the only word we understood was travel lodge, and they pointed in the direction! So we looked out for this travel lodge and eventually found it and further up ahead we say the goal posts of the rugby! And as we drove past we saw the kickoff! So we though Sweet we will be able to get in and only miss a minute or so by the time we get out of the car etc. But OF COURSE the road was blocked off and of COURSE we had to drive another couple of kilometers just to turn right and go back on the other side, behind the fields!!
So we finally made it to the game about 10mins into it and there had already been 1 try, so by this time I was thinking, ‘I bet you that is Byron’s' coz it would have been the first try he's scored and of course he would get it when i was late to the game! But luckily for me, it wasn’t his!! A little while after i got there one of the players/manager who is injured
Dunstable
through the Front door - Laundry straight ahead, 2 bedrooms on the right - well there is behind those mattresses! Which arent there now! came up to me and was like, 'are you coming to all the games, i hope so coz Byron’s having a blinder!' so that was cool, he did play well and everyone told him so after the game so he was pretty pleased with that. Oh and they ended up winning 35-13 so that was a very good result!
The trip home was another adventure; we went with a couple other players, Eddie and Stephan, in this little VW golf I was in the back in the middle between Byron and Gerhard, who isn’t little either!! We were packed in like sardines, we couldn’t have all 3 of us leaning back, as our shoulders wouldn’t fit, I had to lean forward mostly or one of the boys did. Then we had taken a wrong turn on the way home so the trip was almost doubly as long as it should have been!! And to make things even more funny, we stopped at petrol station to get some food and the boys both chose really stinky food, like a pepper steak pasty and a chicken garlic wrap, and fizzy drinks… so you can imagine the result of that! I was almost
Dunstable
The yard - Which i am yet to set foot into! knocked out a couple of times after that!! hahah but it wasn’t to bad and we still got home with plenty of time to get ready to go to London for a Halloween party at one of Gerhard’s mates house.
We headed to London at about 8 and was at the party by about 8:40 or so, it is really quick to north London in the car! So we got to the party and the house had been really well decorated with cobwebs and spiders and pumpkins and a bloody hand coming out of the letter opening in the door It was a small party and the people were really nice and welcoming and liked to drink!! I think there drinks of choice for the party games was a Shot of Johnnie Walker followed by a shot of passion fruit juice, apparently that is a very south African drink. Oh and these ‘shots’ were really just small tumblers… yeah massive! It was really fun and we had a few drinks at their place, Byron through a dart at Gerhard’s belly and pierced the skin, he still has a mark! So Gerhard proceeded to throw darts at Byron’s feet, needless to
Dunstable
The Lounge say we put a stop to that game pretty quickly and headed out to the local Irish pub. It was pretty cool, but we had to walk through this dark park to get there! a little freaky but there were 4 rugby boys, plus 2 other guys and then 4 girls, so a pretty big group of us so nothing was really going to happen!
Anyway it was only about a 5min walk to the pub. so that was pretty good we got there and there was a live band playing and it was packed, so we had a dance and a drink but Byron was all tired and sore from the game, so we went back early and made ourselves a bed on the lounge room floor - when I say bed, we squeezed ourselves onto a sheet-less single mattress, was Very interesting considering we struggle on a normal double!! A couple of hours later (literally about 2hrs) the others came back, about 3:30am and they turned all the lights on in the lounge and were still in full party mood while we were in the middle of the floor, so we went upstairs to one of the bedrooms
and were able to continue sleeping. The others finished up at about 5:30am! Crazy!
We woke up at about 10am the next day, and after a call from Mum we decided to get up and wake the rest of the house as well, but to our surprise everyone was pretty much up already! So we had some coffee and I cooked up some scrambled eggs and Jenny, one of the girls that lived at the house cooked the bacon - which btw, comes in slabs over here, not like normal bacon strips… really weird!! So she had to kind of stir-fry the bacon… sooo I steered clear of that! And while cooking the eggs I think the plastic spoon began to melt or something co there was this weird smell/burning coming from the pan and the eggs ended up tasting like that! So I didn’t eat them either… I feel bad for the others that had to eat it just out of politeness... Well that’s the only reason I can think of as to why they would eat it… it was Grosse!
Anyways so we made a move for the England v New Zealand game at Twickenham. The trip to
Dunstable
Our Cupboard...i mean room the rugby was an experience that’s for sure!! We caught the train to Twickenham, with what felt like 80 000 other people, (we found out later that we had broken the record for the most people EVER at the stadium, it had just opened the new south grand stand) mostly English obviously, but seriously the train carriages were PACKED out, not enough room to even reposition your arm or something, like these people just crammed in until everyone was squished and the doors could just close. No room for any claustrophobic people that’s for sure!!!!!
Luckily it was only 20mins like that til we got to the station. Then we had to walk a fair way to get to the stadium, it was pretty cool the whole town was like closed down for the match, no cars could really get in or out, we were walking down the road where the cars should have been! THEN once we got there we had to find me a ticket. Gerhard was given 2 through his work, but there were 3 of us, obviously, so we were on the lookout for a slightly less dodgy looking ticket tout. We ended up finding one,
Dunstable
heheh Byrons black eye - this happened before i came over, but i had to put it in! Its a good one! which, turned out to look the dodgiest out of all of them, and got our hands on 3 really good tickets all in a row, in exchange for Gerhard’s 2 and £80. Which was great considering our tickets were only worth £40 and the ones we got were worth £65!
So we were in Gate C, Block 117, row 69, and seats 37-38. Which was pretty awesome, we were in the middle tier and to the right of the goal posts, almost on the corner, so it was a pretty good view of all the different angles etc. It was an AMAZING atmosphere to be in! It was SOOOO loud and I don’t think there was an empty seat in the house! They got 80 076 to that game! It was crazy!! The English definitely get into there sport! Oh and I must admit I was wearing a NZ cap for the game, one of the housemates is a Kiwi and he had really good tickets that came with meals and free beer etc, but anyway we caught up with him before the game and he said he had lots of spare NZ stuff so I thought bugger it, I don’t want England to win anyways, AND it will keep my head warm! So yeah sorry Dad, I was a Kiwi for the game! Shame I know! But don’t worry, Byron refused to Kiss or Hug or really even talk to me while I was wearing it so I have been punished!! ;o)
After the game we were going to catch a train but the lines were massive, AND i didn’t have the correct ticket, and the line up to buy one was even longer than the train line.. so we decided, well the boys decided, that they wanted to have a pint, so we walked into the town centre and they got a pint and i stood there wishing i was at home in bed already! so i eventually got them to take me home, we jumped on a bus to Hammersmith which ended up taking about an hour i reckon, and then caught the tube, which should of taken us all the way to where we wanted to go but for some reason terminated a few stops early. So we had to change tubes, which was alright, the next one came pretty much straight away. So we get to the train station to catch it to Luton and then get a taxi, but we get there and it has been closed for the day for some reason! So then we had to go all the way back to the tube station, go back 4 stops from where we just came from and THEN catch a different tube altogether to a completely different train station!
We had to go to West Hampstead to catch the national rail, we got outside from the tube station and it looked like the dodgiest place ever! Everything was really dark, there were a couple of what looked like abandoned buildings and yeah not a place id want to hang out in that’s for sure! We only had a 200m walk up the road to the train so that was ok,but I was definitely glad I was walking with a 6’5” rugby guy!! Then we get to the station and the ticket office was closed and not a person was in sight!!! So we weren’t even sure it was open, but then Byron spotted an automatic ticket machine, so we had to try and guess our way through that! Turns out we ended up getting tickets for the complete opposite direction, but the station we were at and the one we got off at didn’t have gates to validate the ticket so it didn’t matter, if we hadn’t had even bothered buying the tickets we still would have been fine!!
Anyway so we got to Leagrave station at about 10:30pm (we started this whole journey at 7pm!!) then cabbed it back home! It was nice to get back into a familiar place!
So we had a pretty hectic, but really fun weekend up here in freezing cold England!
Other than that, Byron is back working this week, after taking a couple of weeks off so we could hang out together, and I should be hearing about a job from an agency tomorrow. It will be in Dunstable and pays pretty well from what I’ve been told. So fingers crossed I wont be an ‘un-employed’ bum for much longer!
Oh and it is only 6 weeks til our Contiki Tour starts so we are both hanging out for that, it is going to be SOOOO much fun!
Anyways that’s all I have for now, there are some photos of our house and the town of Dunstable, but unfortunately I didn’t think to take my camera to Twickenham… I did get some o my phone but again technical difficulties are stopping me from msging them to anyone!!!
Hope you are all well and loving the warmth… I miss it sooooo much!! I hate England! ;o) Well maybe just the weather… and the old-ness… and the dodgy-ness of where im living… but other than that its Great! ;o)
Keep the comments and msg’s coming! Its great to hear from you all and I am glad you are reading, hopefully my blogs are making some kind of sense!!
xox
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Aunty Leonie
non-member comment
Terrific story
Rossie has been sending me the blogs, great reading keep it up and keep warm and well, hear from you sonn. Love Leonie