Today was day one back in the big city and a time to go a-touristing. We started off at Buckingham Palace. I was quite disappointed, it's just an ugly square thing with some gold on the gates. You'd think that the family that once ruled over half the world through their empire would have had some nicer digs. And it wasn't changing of the guard day, so the guards didn't have their bear hats on. Humph. Walked down to Piccadilly Circus admiring all the window displays in the fancy stores along the way. The Circus was mad busy and felt like London Proper, Corb liked the cool new TVs on the corner. Wandering further we checked out Leicester Square before visiting the National Portrait Gallery. Highlights there included the Beatles Balcony and portraits of such wonderful ... read more

Our weekend in Oxford was wicked and full of great adventure. The highlight was when Jack tore off his shirt and swooped out in front of oncoming traffic so save a baby in a wayward stroller. Then he dashed back to safety only to see its mother crying from a burning window 7 storeys up. It was a leap worthy of a video game, and all were brought to safety by modest Jack who then had time for a pint at the pub with us afterward. Ok not really but he asked me to write something along those lines..... This weekend was matriculation for the newbies at Oxford, so in between pub hopping we watched the guys get all dressed up with their white bow ties and sign into St Johns College. The photo process took ... read more

From the family thing we travelled to Brighton to catch up with Corb's mate from Engineering, Ron (Rob Lorimer). He has a pretty sweet flat in a cute terrace house with an attic that we are sleeping in. It's close to town which is sweet but the trains that pass by every 10mins shake the place which is a little unnerving in the middle of the night. After a beer and a quick catch up we headed into town to the South Laines where we had a great Spanish feed, visiting several pubs on the way home. Waking up today we saw Ron off to work and then set off to see Brighton. The sea front was nice but kinda cold and blustery this morning, and the empty and motionless pier fairground was a little depressing. ... read more

London! Well our first few days have been pretty good, though typically now that we are on the move again the weather has finally cleared but that's how it goes I suppose. Staying with Matt and Jacinta in Bayswater has been sweet - it's really central and their flat actually has space which is cool. We've started playing the catch up game and spent Thursday night out for drinks near Soho with some friends of theirs we knew from Auckland, then last night went and caught up with Kat (Katie Swanson) at her crazy flat. We also started on the mammoth list of things to see in London and began with the Natural History Museum yesterday. It was really cool and actually fun, though dodging all the school groups made it a bit crazy. Really impressed ... read more

Arriving on a 6am train was not the nicest way to finally make it to Paris, but it was the cheapest and so it was our method of choice. We had booked a hostel just down the road from Sacre Coeur but it was pretty skank so we only lasted one night before finding ourselves a room in a little hotel in charming Montmatre. All around us were streets lined with speciality food and wine stores, cafes and bars and typically French boutiques. It was delightful. On the tourist trail our first stop was the Eiffel Tower. It was a lovely sunny day so the walk up the 668 steps was well worth it and we had a great clear view across Paris. We then explored the Champs de Mars with all the locals and tourists ... read more