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Published: December 29th 2009
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Welcome back to London!
London Eye on the Thames in Summer As we come to the end of the decade, I think back 10 years ago to the brink of the Millennium, when I was still in school and not quite old enough to drink (....), and I wonder what my reaction would have been if someone had told me then where I would be and what I would have done in the following 10 years. Some parts wouldn't have surprised me, like the trip to the Middle East and Europe, as the dream to visit those countries preceded 1999, but if I were told that my absolute travelling highlight would have been South America, I definitely wouldn't have believed it. But more on the nostalgic reminiscing later. First what have I been up to since I made the flight back from the warmer climes of Guatemala?
Well, unfortunately there hasn’t been a whole lot of travelling done since I got back. My time has been spent working trying to pay back the debts from where I overspent. Not that I have been sitting at home doing nothing. No, not at all. The break in South America has renewed my outlook, which can get drained quite quickly by the cold weather
Big Ben
And the Houses of Parliament in Summer and transport here in London. I have got back into Hapkido several times a week (including one successful grading up to the next belt level already), restarted Spanish lessons (so I don’t forget what took me so long to pick up!), and rejoined the running club around Regents Park, as well as trying out another martial art called Krav Maga.
But first I will head back to September, when only a few weeks after landing back, I was on the plane again, this time to Munich for Oktoberfest with Ange, Renee and Mike as a bit of a farewell to Ange who was heading back to New Zealand, ready for the new phase in her life. As you might be able to guess, it wasn’t exactly a sober experience. We arrived the Friday night very late, crashed into bed, then were up at the crack of dawn to head to the tents where in amongst the hordes, we managed to squeeze into a table with the rest of the ‘nerds’, where we were tortured by having to wait until midday for the Opening Ceremony for our first stein of beer! Once it arrived, the rest of the afternoon passed
London Eye
Over the Thames as I show Mum and Nana around rather quickly as we consumed more steins and started dancing on tables and generally enjoyed the atmosphere. Eventually we stumbled out of the tent after 8 or 9 hours, where I managed to lose the girls. We weren’t in a state for much more than sleeping so we arranged to meet back at the hotel, which was about 3 minutes from the site. I got there in 3 minutes, Renee and Ange arrived an hour and a half later as they had got lost and taken a tiki tour of Munich - including Renee ringing Brendan in New Zealand to ask him to look on Google Maps to see if he could find where she was. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that I asked her why she didn’t use her Blackberry. “.........Oh yeah........” No, she doesn’t have blonde hair.
The next morning, we were all pretty thankful that the hotel did a big greasy breakfast, though I was in a fairly good state compared to the others. After that, I went out and walked around the grounds before saying a farewell to Ange and Renee before heading to the airport to head back to London.
Westminster Abbey
Part of the London tour Otherwise I have been keeping pretty busy with various events going on in London as well. One of which was heading along to the O2 Arena to watch the year ending Masters Tennis, which featured the top 8 players in the world. The way the draw threw the matches up, I was lucky enough to see Federer vs Murray, where Federer showcased why he is regarded as one of the best players of all time, but my favourite match was Djokovic vs Davydenko, and while Djokovic won, Davydenko played incredibly (and ended up winning the tournament). Also over this time, Mum and Nana decided to pop by for a visit from New Zealand. It was great to see them and show them round town, including taking them to a pub only hours after they had landed to watch the All Blacks vs Wales! A great introduction to British culture.
I did the son-ly (and grandson-ly) duties and showed them around the touristy spots in London, before they ventured off for some of their own trips before I finished off cooking them a home cooked meal at my flat. Wasn't that nice of me? They were quite lucky in that
Revenge of the Nerds
Early in the morning before we head along to the tents at Oktoberfest 09 the weather played nice for them throughout their stay. But the day after they left, the cold swept in, easing us in with 15 days in a row of rain. The weather did improve a bit, but dropped just in time to give the UK it's first white Christmas in 5 years, even some snow in London! I had Renee, a friend from home, dossing with me at the time and it was her first time seeing falling snow. She was like a kid at, well, Christmas! For Christmas, I spent it with my two ex flatmates, Kim and Megs and a few of their friends. We all ate and drank too much so a good day.
Which leads onto the end of the year and the reminiscing. What a year. It started with welcoming it in freezing cold in New York before a surprise trip back to NZ, then 6 months travelling through Latin and South America, and any year where you work less than half of it is a good one in my books. Adding to that, I had the best week of my life in Cartagena, Colombia, and I had my travelling highlight (to date), standing
at the top of Waynu Picchu, looking down at Machu Picchu and experiencing the serenity of looking over the Andes. And now we look forward to 2010 as I change careers to something that doesn't bore me to tears!
To all, la buena suerte para 2010 y hasta pronto!
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