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Published: November 21st 2005
Us
At the start of the night - looking relatively normal (all things considered)Ed:
Figure it’s been a while since our last update - Matt’s in Exeter (about 3 hours away) this week so I have a bit of spare time..
Anywho - We seem to have finally settled in at home. We’ve furnished most of it - mainly with cheap things that we think will just manage to last the time we are here. It’s on a busy road so on the weekends it can get pretty noisy late into the night - luckily the last few weekends we’ve been out and normally get home just to pass out so the noise is not much of an issue…
I’ve started to work in child protection in a council called Haringey which is in the north of London - it’s quite close to Alexandra Palace for anyone who’s been here. First week was frustrating as my manager was at a hearing so I was put on duty to work on unallocated cases that had blown up - I now have my own cases but I’m finding the CP system to be really frustrating, I will never whinge about work back home again! The processes are not very clear - there are
On the tube
Yes we got looks far too many parties involved in all the decision making which all it really does is slow the process of getting final orders for children. I’ve also had the ‘good fortune’ of working in an office which 4 years ago had a high profile case of the death of a child (Victoria Climbie for those who know about it!) which ended up in a royal commission and a couple of people in my council lost their jobs - so I have to be careful not to bring up the case as a few of the people involved still work there.
The people are friendly but everyone is quite overloaded with work so most people are always out on the field or with their heads in their computer…
Now - I know I mentioned that the transport here in London is excellent - but that was before I started to take the overland! What a saga that is - they are worse than back home - there is no day that doesn’t go by where trains are cancelled or running late - just on Monday I had to wait for over an hour for a train - and apparently
Greer
For her take on the night, visit www.travelblog.com/bloggers/greery/ (we have nothing to say) it just gets worse as it gets colder (they start blaming the ice build up on the track or something) - so I’m giving up and going back on the tube which will take a little longer but is far more reliable…
Last week we celebrated our anniversary - we were planning to take a trip somewhere but with starting new jobs and finding a home we ran out of time to plan anything big - Matt booked a great Indian restaurant not far from home - it was quite private and cosy and very intimate. Then we came home and had strawberries dipped in chocolate with a bottle of moet - it was a very romantic night.
That weekend was Halloween so we went to a dress up party at a club in Old Street. It was at a retro club so we danced to 80’s music all night and had a blast. Matt dressed up as a maimed mounty and I went as the grim reaper. Greer came along as she dressed up as the maid from Rocky Horror - we’d had a bottle of champagne before leaving so we weren’t afraid to ‘display’ our costumes
Halloween Party
Clockwise from top right: Craig David, French Maid of Death, Mr Burns, Satan and his bride on the tube - how we didn’t get arrested is a miracle! Ha ha
The following weekend we went to Popztars - which is like a gay rock club! The queues to get in were huge - but the club was great - they played grunge and rock - which if anyone has ever been to a gay club - it’s a nice change from dance and disco. Everyone was jamming and moshing - unlike anything we’d seen before. That sat night was Guy Fawkes (bonfire) night - so we braved the cold evening and sat on hill overlooking the city skyline and watched fireworks go off everywhere. Fireworks are legal here for anyone to buy so the whole city was lit up it was fantastic to watch - however there were a couple of stupid people that decided to ‘aim’ their crackers at people so we spend a good part of the evening ‘dodging’ explosives - it was a mild Iraqi experience for us!
Then last weekend was the start of our trips abroad. First up was Amsterdam - which was just as fun as we remembered it. It’s such a cute city - it has a
Matt and Chris
Matt picked up a chimney sweep! real ‘small town’ feel to it - a bit like cusco in that way.
We arrived at around 10pm - the flight was so quick - it actually took us longer on the tube from home to the airport than to get there! It’s obvious that everyone that lives in london plans weekend trips to mainland europe as the tube to the airport was chockers - some people were ready with their ski gear, others with their boogy boards obviously heading south somewhere!
Casper met us at the airport and then went to his place and caught up with jilli. She wasn’t feeling the best so then we headed out with Casper to a latin club for his sister’s birthday. Normally they play salsa but they had a band on from Argentina which played spanish rock music. We hang out there till around 1am - then headed out to a dance club. Casper’s got great connections and he’d put our name on the list of all the hot clubs in amsterdam - we just stuck to one till around 3am and then headed home on cab.
Following day we went and did some sight seeing around the
Iamsterdam
Near Van Gogh Museum city, did a canal tour, went to a flower market, and then went shopping. Got some great bargains! Yay! We had lunch at this cute little italian restaurant which made this 4-cheese pizza! (..and yes the pounds are starting to pile on!) Then that night we took casper and jilli out to a restaurant - it was on a boat and they served great food - matt had rabbit and I had a mushroom soup which was to die for.
Then later on it was a friend of jilli’s birthday so got there around 11 and spent the rest of the night boozing and dancing.
The following day we’d planned a sight-seeing tour however by the time we rang to book it was all booked out :-( ; So then we grabbed some fresh croissants and went and joined jilly, casper and camille for breakfast. Casper then took out us out in his bmw convertible around the country side to see some windmills and to a cheese factory. The city is very flat! No hills anwhere….
After that he dropped us off at the Van Gogh museum. This was a highlight. I’m no art lover - but
Canal
(The sun was really bright!) looking at painting that so often I’ve seen on books or postcards was such an experience. We saw his self portraits, flower stills, and lots of landscapes. The guy was truly ahead of his time. Later on we headed to a park reserve for a stroll - it was late in the evening so we were greeted with a sunset and chill in the air and it set the mood nicely…
Casper was to take us to the airport but the poor guy got food poisoning so at the last minute we decided to take public transport. It was supposed to be a simple trip of the tram to central, then the train to the airport - 30 minutes tops.
Well - under Jilli’s instruction, we headed to the tram stop. As we were waiting, I noticed a sign in dutch with the only recognizable word “Centraal Station” and an exclamation mark next to our tram number. Much against our better judgement, we hopped on the tram. After 20 minutes, we sensed it was not headed towards central, so after some exchanges with the non-english speaking driver, we deciphered that we were nowhere near central and were advised
The Whale
We made the name up, but it fits so hey... New building in Amsterdam by Renzo Piano to take the tube there from the middle of nowhere. By this time it was 40 minutes before our flight left so we knew time was against us! After locating the tube, and finding the only person there at 8pm on a Sunday nite, we figured out the right direction. By this time I was sweating it cold and matt had a permanent fixture on his watch. Got to central with 30 minutes to go - of course anyone that has been to a central station - there are like 40 platforms and none that clearly say “this platform to the airport” (in case you need to ever know - the dutch word for airport is schiphol!). After finally getting the right platform - we just miss the train! By this time I’m no longer thinking this is a fun adventure and Matt is working out how much is gonna cost us for another flight home. Anyways, so we get to the airport with 15 minutes to departure - we locate the BA guy and he thankfully calls the gate and they are able to book us in - I felt so Amazing Race!
Well - that’s our adventures
Ed...
...At the beginning of the tour so far - next place is Belfast with Matt’s dad and Dom so I’m sure we’ll have plenty more stories.
Other than that Matt’s being working a lot - he’s being sent away to Exeter, Yeovil, Bristol and next Glasgow so I’m finding I need to make lots of new friends soon or I’m going to get very home sick!
Hope you are all well - keep sending your emails as we love to hear about all the stuff going on back home.
Missing you guys heaps.
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Greery
greery
Fancy Seeing You here
Nice one boys! I just logged on and there you were! xxx