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Published: April 28th 2008
Lunch
Traditional English fish and chips. Note the peas, yummm!Hello there
We have been in London for just over two months now so in that time we have developed some opinions on the place. Firstly, the UK and particularly London seems like quite a violent place. Vancouver had a lot of violence but most of it was gang related and didn't usually involve random attacks on the general public. Over here there it seems like most of the stories you hear about involve quite disturbing random acts of appalling violence against innocent people, a lot of it involving young people (there have been a few fights on Tubes that I have been in, one involving a couple of school boys probably 11 or 12 years old on there way to school). There is of course the gang related violence as well. I read one of the free newspapers on the train on the way to work in the morning and by the time I arrive at work I often feel a little down and depressed after reading 4 or 5 stories of innocent people being killed by thugs through meaningless violence. Of course it doesn't help that a lot of the reporting here is quite sensationalist and graphic. We
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Gaz finally got to meet Lou and Andy. definitely don't feel as safe walking around here as we did in Vancouver. But having said all that, its still pretty safe and there are so many police around its not funny. Not to mention the CCTV. You're rarely ever out of eyeshot of a CCTV camera.
In keeping with this rather morbid theme, another depressing and sadly quite common experience in London is people jumping in front of trains. The station closest to work serves as both a tube station and as part of the National Rail network. High speed Virgin Trains run through the station at about 80mph. Consequently, it attracts a lot of people determined to jump in front of trains. Its happened 3 times since I have been at work, 2 of them within 7 days of each other. The aftermath is not very pleasant (there are still visible signs of what happened on the tracks for a few days after the incident), not to mention the huge disruption it causes commuters.
Anyway, enough of the doom and gloom. Despite the unpleasant picture I have just painted of London, we are actually really enjoying the city. Its not somewhere we plan on spending a
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Emma's hanging out with Will Smith great deal of time living as various parts of London life (like the traveling times, the costs, the amount of people, the dirtiness etc) start to get a little old after a while. But the there is a certain vibrancy to the place which is quite addictive. We both really enjoy spending time in central London and there is a lot to do and see, always something interesting going on, and some amazing buildings and history.
So what have we been up to since we last blogged a month and a half ago? Well sadly not as much as we had hoped. We have stuck mainly to London, doing a few of the toursity things. We went to Madame Tussauds famous wax museum which was excellent. Some of the models were unbelievably realistic, while others weren't so good. They even had one of Jonah in the sports section. We have posted plenty of photos for you to see for yourself. We also did an open top bus tour of the sights of London with our friend Helen who we met on the Rockies tour in Canada. They are a good way to work out where everything is and how
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The Rock looks confused Gaz? to get around, and also have some interesting stories. It also included a cruise down the Thames which was cool. We went to the London Transport Museum which was quite interesting to learn about how the transport system has evolved and whats planned for the future, but it was more aimed at kids. We went to a comedy club in Leicester Square which was quite fun. It was improv night so they were doing 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' style games, but unfortunately two of the guys were quite young and inexperienced so wasn't as funny as we had hoped. The main guy was very good though and took the piss out of us when he found out we were Kiwis, calling us Hobbits and asking us what part of Mordor we were from.
Sporting wise, we joined the hundreds of thousands of other foolish spectators lining the banks of the Thames in freezing rain to watch the famous Oxford-Cambridge boatrace. We sat in the rain for a couple of hours as the crowds built up around us, then got to see the rowers for a total of about 3mins as they rowed passed, but it was actually quite
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Gaz is enjoying himself with Kate fun. We then hit a cocktail bar with our flatmates Adam and Steph as it was there last night out before heading back to Oz.
Then there was the London Marathon. We went to watch the finish outside Buckingham Palace along with hundreds of thousands of other people. After seeing the first few finish we walked along the last couple of miles of the route which was packed with spectators enthusiastically cheering the runners on. There were a few people making a day of it with a few beers. It was quite amusing to see these guys who had put away a few beers and were getting rowdy cheering and encouraging the runners. Makes a change to the usual abusive loutish behaviour you see at sports events. Some of the runners were themselves quite amusing. Four guys were wearing jail suits and were chained together, there was another guy who was wearing one of the infamous 'Borat' swimming suits, and then there was the blind guy who was running the last of 7 marathons in 7 days with the aid of a minder (big ups). I have great respect for anyone who runs a marathon, but I haven't yet
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Mmmm Leo, meow been inspired to start training for next years one. We were amazed at the level of support the runners were getting from spectators, it was really good to see.
And we have also been to another concert. It was a Velvet Revolver gig who we had already seen last year in Vancouver but we have to make the most of all these shows before we get back to NZ so we thought we'd go again and we're very glad we did. I think it was probably a better show than the last one and Slash was absolutely brilliant this time round. Lots of fun.
Outside of London, we took a daytrip to Oxford which was a supercool place. Again we did an open top bus tour and then went on a tour of Oxford Castle which was used as a prison up until 1996. After that we just cruised around town checking out all the old buildings and University colleges (there are 39). We then found ourselves at a pub on the banks of the Thames enjoying the late afternoon sun over a couple of cold pints. We both really liked Oxford. It was a pleasant change from
the hustle and bustle of London and Oxford has a really relaxed, student city type of vibe. Could definitely go back there and spend a bit more time over summer. We really enjoyed the train ride there as well as we were able to see a bit of the English countryside which is all very charming.
Looking forward, we have a few things booked that we are quite excited about. Later this week Emma's sister Amy is coming down from Edinburgh to stay with us for a few days. We are going to do some touristy things with her that we haven't yet done and have also got tickets to go to the taping of the BBC TV show 'Gladiators' (remember it from like 15 years ago). Then on Friday the 25th we plan on getting up super early and heading to the NZ War Memorial for the ANZAC Day Dawn Service. Later that morning there is a service at Westminster Abbey which we got tickets for from the NZ High Commission so that will be pretty special. Then after that we are going to get drunk (at least we’re honest).
Further down the line, we have
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Haste la vista, baby
tickets for the 1st cricket test between NZ and England at Lords, the home of cricket. We were only able to get tickets for the 4th day so we are hopeful that both teams are able to do better than the recent series in NZ so that we actually get to see it. I am really looking forward to it so will be most disappoint if its over before the 4th day. We missed out on tickets to the One Day matches so that sucks.
Staying with the sporting theme, we also hope to pop out to Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks to support Johnny Reid in the final round of A1GP as he tries to take NZ to a come from behind championship victory. And then there is the London Sevens at Twickenham. Our All Blacks jerseys are going to be getting a good workout next month that’s for sure. There is plenty of other stuff on the horizon in June and July but I won't bore you with those details....yet.
Work is work. Emma has just had two weeks off so has been moping around the house with not a lot to do. The
house is nice and clean though. And I'm totally over my job. On a couple of occasions recently I have been ambushed while out on site by groups of angry neighbours venting their collective frustrations about Council not doing its job properly. Its not a very pleasant experience when they're all ganging up and having a go at you about things that you have absolutely no control over (and really don't give a shit about). I reckon its worse than in NZ, people are ruder and there are some neighbourhood wars being fiercely fought out there. To be honest its put me right off planning, well working for a Local Authority anyway, so I'm going to start looking for private work. I probably don't have enough experience, especially UK experience, to be considered for any private jobs and it would also mean taking a pay cut but I think it would be much more enjoyable so I might give it ago.
And in other gossip, now that our original flatmates have all moved out the whole dynamic of the flat has changed and its not as enjoyable as it used to be. The old flatmates have been replaced by
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Bond James Bond two French couples, one of which speaks bugger all English. They have these little dinner parties and things together speaking very loud French (probably talking about how much we smell (we figure that must have been why the other flatties left us)). It makes feel very out of place and uncomfortable so we have started to look for a new flat, although we aren't in any great hurry. We want to make sure we get the right place for us to ensure we have a reasonable time in London.
Anyway, I think I have rambled on (and on, and on) enough so we'll leave you to it. Hope all is well with everybody.
Cheers
Gareth & Emma
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