Where we at?

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Blah Blar bla.

So its been a while since we put finger to keyboard and bashed out some guff about our where abouts. Its been all so busy and exciting over the past few months. Shall try and summarise whats been going on in this update.

Going way back to the end of Contiki, we left Switzerland and headed to France. Looked around france, did the sites la de dar. That was france. Im sure other things happened but it was so long ago, and also i know how boring these update things can be. Infact, i bet half the people who get our emails dont even bother reading the updates! Fair enough.

Oh thats right, We arrived in france on Bastille day. Duno what its all about but thats where we saw the best fireworks weve ever seen in our lives.

From there it was onto London our new home.

We packed up and said goodbuy to the fellow raisers of contiki. Sad faces and tears for some people. That night we were greeted by my old school and family friend Anna Mcgill whos place we would crash at for the first couple of weeks whilst we tried to get settled into this crazy city. Was so good to see a familiar face. For the next week we were lucky enough to have Shannon and Woggy stay in London who we met almost every night before they flew out to return to Australia. Great boys, a definate friendship for life made there. Just one of the beauties of travelling huh.

What was next....

Trying to get work, yes that was fun. I found it easyish to get an I.T role. Didnt end up getting contract work which was a bit of a pooher, but got hooked up by my buddy Mike who i went to Uni with back in NZ, working for the small comany that he works for here in London. Somehow managed to get myself fired from the role before i even started....(dont ask, not even I know how i managed that!) Lance managed to land a job, then he quit, then he scored another great job, hooked the boys up with this flash as 2006 holden car with GPS, and now hes quit, dunno why he quit and not sure why we still have the company car in our driveway, but him and his talkative 'i can do anything attitude' its seems he pulled some strings. Hes spending his days sleeping in and going to the gym whilst im out slaving. Still dont understand how we have that car.....But anyhow, its going to come in handy as we hope to get up to Liverpool to see Tiesto play up there in late Nov.

Transport in this city is insane, is pretty awesome how you dont have to plan to go anywhere... well you do but you dont. You dont in the sense you can just walk outside to the bustop and there will be a bus in under 5 mins, get to the tube which leaves every so often, but then to get anywhere it takes ages cause the distances are so far. Tube stations smell like crap, and you end up getting black snot which is foul. But its all just part of london i guess. When we first arrived we were in the middle of a heat wave, was getting up to 50 degrees celcius on the busses and tubes. Was chaos. Horrible as anything i tell you.

Afrter a few stressfull weeks of searching for a place to live, we ended up bumping into two kiwi girls heather and michelle who were from Auckland. So happens they were also needing a place to live and so we went in with them and found ourselves a nice little pad out in dirty ealing. Is definatly not the nicest places in london, its very multicultured which is cool but all the shops are just...i duno, otara or porirua type shops. There is a Dirty and skummy feeling about them. We wouldnt go out and eat down where we live, thats for sure. Poison central.

Since then its just been setlling into London life. The hours you work are crazy, long days due to travel mainly. The evening soon comes and goes and before you know it you find yourself in the viscious circle of life again. Definatly went through a down patch just as we started re adjusting to working ways. After all the high life of travelling, we both found ourselves feeling a bit emotionally drained and down. However we soon got out there and started to meet some great people and the whole new lifestyle of living in london started to bring with it the excitement that we anticipated.

We have had a new Australian flatmate Steph move in who is a bundle of fun. Lances Aunt and Uncle came to visit for a few weeks and Marliese also showed up. Had 11 people in the house at one stage. Was crazy. It has quietend down a bit and now we have 6.

Summer months have faded away. Is sad getting emails from everyone back home telling us how the evenings are starting to draw out now over there. So jealous!!! London days are becoming shorter and colder. London people in general are...well, i duno, london people. We have both found it interesting and somewhat hard working in environments with the brits. I duno what is is about them but they definatly seem to be a different breed to the easy going more laid back kiwi that we are used to. I even had the pleasure of being asked by the owner, the head honcho of the company i contract out to, he asked me if i "knew how to do my f***ng job, and that if his computer wasnt fixed that i would be in serious f***ing trouble" Welcome to the losers of london. Wasnt my fault the dork didnt know how to click on view menu next to the edit menu to change the way his screen layout was.

Last thursday I played out in a club for the first time. It was in a bar up in Piccadilly. Was a great night out with all. Made for a sluggish Friday but other than that it was well worth it. Have been really blessed with the people who i have 'bumped' into and met already over here, people who are quite tightly knitted into the whole dance scene. Still pursuing the production side of things at the moment but still far away from where i would love to be.


Sometimes it all seems a struggle over here. Took 8 weeks to get our internet connected. If you lose your eftpos card like i did, it takes 6 weeks to be issued another, then when you ask to do a manual withdrawl they dont let you, it is unlike back home where you get your new eftpos card issued over the counter from the bank teller. There is no bulk foods in the supermarkets. Cant use eftpos in dairys. They still have 1 and 2 cent coins, sorry, pence i mean. If you phone any company and get put in a hold queue on the telephone, minimum wait will be 15mins. Supermarkets close at 4pm on a Sunday?!?!? What is with that? Also KFC dont have potato and gravy, nor do they have chicken salt on their chips. But they do have baked beans as a side order option. Yipde do.
Ok so now we just sound like moaning spoilt tourists. But it did take a bit of time to adjust to the ways of a londoner. Funny tho, we are both sure there was so much more to add to this list...just shows we are settling in and becoming familiar with our new surroundings and customs.

Last weekend (14th Oct) I had my 24th. We went out to the blueman group which was a comedy musical theatre type thing and then to HEATUks 5th birthday. (Dance Party) at Camden Palace. Definatly one of the best venues we have ever been to for a dance party, was a great night out.

Currently we are trying to scrape some pennies together and book some flights over to America. Hoping to get to New York for christmas then hopefully up to California and into New Mexico to catch up with Betsy and Claire my old flatmate and friend from Wellington days. Not 100% sure we will pull it off but we shall see. Would be great to get away and out of London for a bit. Like everyone says, you really need to be planning trips away and have goals set, other wise its just like living back home....only a little bigger. You can really take advantage of the pound and europe is so handy and easy to get in and out of.


Right the whole blog thing is getting well boring now im sure.

Cherio all

Love

James
and
Lance

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Photos

Big Ben
Standing Outside Big Ben Day 1 In London.

Something out of fairy land
Windsor Castle Gardens

Mel and Daz
Our Tour Manager (Mel) and Coach driver (Daz)

Hold the beat
Spinning tunes at Picadilly.