Christmas in Barcelona... NOT!!!!

Well... we tried to go to Barcelona, but the weather in London was not on our side. Our flight on the 23rd was cancelled due to fog, so (after an hour on hold to BA) we got seats on a flight on the 24th. All good. At 0525 we received a text to say that our flight was cancelled again. So, after 3 and a half hours of beign hung up on (repeatedly) and waiting on hold, Alex finally got through to BA again, and the next earliest flight is on the 26th.

Stink.

So, after a mad dash to marks and sparks we managed to get some Christmas supplies and have had a nice quiet Christmas with the 2 of us in our flat.

:)

I hope everybody else has had a really good Christmas and here are a few pictures of our Christmas dinner!

Starting with pancakes and Champagne for brekkie.With a very nice bottle of Tattinger, thanks to one of my students :)

Next is a photo of the Christmas hamper we won from the local supermarket. It was very handy... :)

Alex's table setting for our dinner :)

First course of Paula's Pumpkin soup...Paula carving the cute little roast ham for 2... and then the dinner of roast potatoes, steamed vege and roast ham... mmm... verdict, good :)

Last but not least, the 'pav'... complete with Paula's yummy cranberry sauce... very nice.

So, hopefully, the next entry will be an update on Barcelona and catching up with my mates jen and her alex... either that or it will be a diatribe on the slackness that is BA... sigh.

Love to everyone! And Merry Christmas!

P. and LX

Gettin' some cul-cha in London.

So... What is better than going to have a look around St Paul's?

I know... Seeing St Paul's for FREE!!!!

And what is better than seeing St Paul's for FREE?

I know... Seeing a concert in St Paul's!!!... for FREE!!!!!

So, that is what Alex and I got to do.

About 3 weeks ago, I got offered 2 tickets to go and see a one off performance of Verdi's Requiem performed by a full orchestra and a HUGE choir. It was absolutely amazing. Alex's quote was 'yeah, it wasn't bad...' Not only did we get free tickets, but they were pretty amazing seats as well, very expensive...

Pity I don't have any good photo's though.

Next on Paula's list of cul-cha things is getting to go on a couple of school theatre trips. How much FUN!!! I basically asked if I could go, and went. First thing I got to see was a performance of Stephen Fry's version of the pantomime Cinderella at teh Old Vic. Very very funny. Although it was quite rude with lots of naughty jokes. I ended up having the year five boy who was sitting next to me ask me what it was that I was laughing at. Hmmm... yes... well, I ended up saying not very much about that to him. But it was very good.

Then this week I got to go to a performance of Tintin. It was basically the story of Tintin in Tibet. Amazing how it was so very much cartoon like! I loved the set and Captain Hadoock looked EXACTLY like the cartoons. There were billions of blistering blue barnacles and snowy was a real dog, then an actor. Again, very very cool. I am a very lucky girl!

The one other wee bit of cul-cha that Alex and I have been and done is last Saturday Alex and I went to a 300 year old church in Mayfair to see a friend from school sing in a candlelit carols service. It was very good, and felt all Christmassy! Including being nice and chilly outside! Very fun.

Apart from getting some cul-cha, life has been ticking over here. Alex is working nine till five. Aye, what a way to make a living....

And I have finally finished school for the year. yah! I'm on holiday... :) Hopefully going to go and make a pavlova at a friends place tomorrow. Then on Monday some of the girls are hopefully going to go outdoors iceskating somewhere in London.... yah! fun!!!

last picture... our bogan Christmas tree :)

Love to Everyone!!!

P. and LX.

Guards bands and the Grenadier Guards Band

One Sunday Paula and I checked out the changing of the Guards at at Buckingham Palace.

the Coldstream guards and the Band of the Royal Artillery doing the honours. Here is a few photos of that.

Then we happened upon the Guards museum and decided to have a look. All very interesting with 200 year old drums and various bits from the likes of the Crimean and Napoleonic wars, Including the boy drummer (aged nine) pictures of his uniform below.

All this isn't so unusual, However on the 16th I had the opportunity to visit the Grenadier Guards (which formed in 1660, no fear of an "originals" comeback tour then!) at there place of residence in Wellington Barracks.

So after a brief worry of how do I get in here, I was escorted in with barely a look from the armed Guard. I was then escorted across the internal court yard filled with ageing army vehicles. Down a set of narrow stairs towards the basement that wouldn't look out of place at lombard carpark. Eventually I was shown to the bands "staff" room if you like that included well worn furniture.
From there it was on into the centre courtyard with the vehicles with last minute instrument checks along the way. There was some debate here about weather the guard change would happen at all due to the rain. But they decided to go ahead and the rain cleared up anyway.

They then walked out and stood in a great circle for a warm up out on the parade ground.

I was watching from the edge next to the barracks.
During this period they bring the new horses in to get them used to the noise.

They then get the order to form up which is quite an effort coming from a circle.

The Officer of the new set of guards going on will then request the music the band is to play. Quite often this is not what the band actually plays on the march.

then the gates are opened and the band marches out.

The changing of the guard happens and they march back.

When the band is dismissed from the parade and changed back to civilian clothes this is quite often the end of there working day at 12.30.

I only got a couple of pictures of this because I felt a wee bit silly with my camera out...

The next week I was invited to play with the band during one of there morning rehersals and warm ups. I played three pieces with them, two on cymbals and one on snare. Unfortunately I didn't recognise the tunes so I had to sight read them. I also listened to them practice a swing tune and the Saudi national anthem which was for the Saudi kings visit just a week later.

I had a good time playing with them and I am glad I did something altogether different here.

Paula is happy again!

Yah! Reports have been written and handed in... phew... long story, lets just say that I am glad that it is (almost) over!


Anyways, feel very bad that we haven't updated this in a while, so I have decided to put up a few random photos, mainly of the Lord Mayors parade. VERY COOL!!!! probably the only time I will ever see a tractor going down through some of the main streets in London! And soooooooo many bands!!!!! I will try and put a few pics in...

These are just a few of the 24 bands or so that played on down the street. The next photo is for my wonderful blister... can you imagine marching with this many basses down the street??? :)

The last ones were odd, but very cool... I really cannot imagine trying to ride a horse, AND play an instrument... how hard can you get????

And the last photo from Paula, is a spot the odd one out... We went to the Borough Markets and had fun (well, I had fun, but there were a few too many people for Alex... )

Love to all!!!!!

I am sure ALex will add to this... he has some better photos... :)

P.

Drummer Live 2007

I took the opportunity to go to an expo on drums and drumming, sponsored by a local drum magazine I haven't heard of before, simply called "Drummer".

I got to check out and play all the new gear I could find. And once I had bumped the kids (and somewhat older kids) off I got to play both the Roland and Yamaha electronic drum kits in succession. I found the Yamaha IV kits almost instantly preferable with the Oat custom kit being a favorite. Also it was £300 cheaper than the Roland compitition. Which proved to be more of a toy with various key functions missing.

I also saw one of the top female drummers Cindy Blackman (Lenny Kravitz, various Jazz acts)

Who was good to see although the question time was, as always just a bit to naff for me.

I didn't unfortunatly get good pictures of this event but here is one I found interesting.

Needless to say that it was promptly ignored.

Sorry to bore you with all this but it had to be done.

New Home

I did promise to add some pictures of our new flat here, so true to my word here we go.

I have other pictures and stories to come but here is our place anyway. Fellows road. I wonder what the original occupiers of the house would think of us doing our ablutions and things in the corner of their original drawing room.

The back doors (opening out to our balcony, yes, we have a balcony!) looking south.

Our new-ish kitchen. Note the weird British thing of having the washing maching in the kitchen. Odd.

The bathroom - we can only assume this is in the corner of what used to be the drawing room.

Thats all for now.

LX. (and P.)

News from Paula

Hello!

Well, since Alex has been busy and has not had enough internet time to write an entry, I will bore you all with some school stories.
(Note... there are some cool photos from the changing of the guard and Alex's cool story about hanging out with the British Grenadier Guards band, but that is his story... not mine :( )

Anyways, yah! It is Friday, and even better is that it is Friday of half term. :) yah! So that means that I get a week off. Very nice!
However, I have decided that I do quite like being here at this school. The teachers are all very nice and the students are mainly fantastic. I have decided that I have the best form class!
A few things massively different from NZ would be that I have (so far) only heard 1 (yes, you can count that, 1) swear word from a student at this school! VERY NICE CHANGE!!!!!!
Also, the lack of grafetti on my desks in my room. Also, very nice change! The only grafetti I have removed so far said "science is fun!" - hehehe!

Alex was in at school last week doing 2 days of data entry. So he now has a better appreciation of school dinners. I believe he really enjoyed them!!! :)

I have been thinking alot about Tatia since the fire at school last week. I hope everyone there is doing okay!!! Thanks to Parr and Judy for keeping me informed. I appreciate it. (I also hope the catch the little so-and-so that set the fire!!! Thank goodness for the security cameras!!!)

Anyhoo, we should be a lot better at keeping our blog more up to date soon. As we are awaiting the delivery of our internet package to connect to our laptop. It will be a lot easier at home :)
Also, with our package we get free international phone calls. So, some of you might get a call at some stage :)

Right.
Now I really better get some work done, or I will be in here at school in my holidays :(
Love to all!!!!
P.

Some more piccys (FINALLY!)

Hello all!

Well, we have finally managed to organise ourselves so that we have camera, AND USB cable, AND time to put some more photos on the blog.

Sorry for the delay!

First photo is my fav. We found the NZ memorial in Hyde Park corner. It kinda looks very average from a distance, but then you go up close to it and it is really pretty cool. All these stories and images on them. I quite liked it!

The next ones are from the same day when we found the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Albert Memorial. OMG. The Memorial is pretty UGLY! sooooo over the top!

Oh, and can you spot Alex standing in front of the hall?

On other news, school is going okay. Finally got my own classroom as of Wednesday just been. It has not been much fun trying to teach in ten billion other classrooms. Never mind. Had a meet the parents evening for my form class which was nerve wracking, but ended up being quite good. I even had parents tell me they enjoyed it, and that their boys were lucky to have me as their teacher. Certainly made me feel good!!!

Alex is still job hunting. The head of Computing at school gave him an IT job website to look at, and in a few days he has had phone calls and emails about jobs. So that is promising!!!

We are about to go and explore Hampstead. Last weekend we got lost on the Heath. I am sure that someone switched North and South around!!!! :)

This weekend we are going to explore the shops.

Love to all.

P(mainly) and LX(who is looking at jobs...)

Some good ol' piccys

Some old photos and some new ones.
First is both of us on the bus tour. Just started the tour and looking all excited. (on Alex's Birthday!)







Next one is Alex with a statue of Robbie Burns that we found along the Thames in a nice little park like bit.


Oh dear out of time...
more next time...
:)
P.

The one thing I forgot...

...in the last entry... the strangest thing of all about finding a flat in London is...
3. Negotiating your rent. BIZARRE! The ad says "studio flat in Swiss Cottage, £200 per week" and what they really mean is, actually, we will accept offers from about £175 per week and depending on the type of tenants you seem to be, will accept your offer.

WEIRD.

Anyways, again on holiday mode today. We have been fortunate to completely avoid the tube strike thing. The line we travel on (Jubilee line) is run by a different company. All good.
So today we went to explore Regent's Park.
It's big.
And green.
And nice.
And there are birds.
Big birds.
And a wedding.
On a Wednesday.
Odd.

All well here. I am feeling better and Alex seemed fine all along (grr...)
Photos will be up soon.
I promise.

Home Sweet Home

Kia Ora!
Well, almost home sweet home. We have found somewhere to live... but I do have a few comments to make about the process of flat hunting in London...
1. Real Estate agents (mostly) suck. Really. You go into their offices and ask about finding a flat, they say "well, we don't have anything like what you are looking for, but register with us and we will get back to you." So, you do. And do any of them call back???? hmm, no... (except for the one we went with who was pretty damn good!)
2. Being "referenced". A process that involves a 3rd party company to look into your backround and make sure you are okay. Good idea, you say. Yes. Until the real estate agent tells you that it is going to cost you £95 EACH!!! (then you go to another one and they say it will only cost £20 each) still...

But, never mind... we have one! yah! Sorry about the rant.

On a brighter note, we have been having fun :)
Caught up with Aimee while she was here, had a good curry and a coffee and a good goss session about band. Hehehe... :)
And yesterday we went to the Tate Modern with Hannah to go and see the Dali and Film exhibit. VERY COOL!!!!!! First time I have ever seen real Dali's and it was gooood!
Then wandered through the Regent street carnival, or I should say, tried to wander through the Regent street carnival... sooooooo many people! Great Indian festival though, esp. the Indian Pipe band in kilts.
After that, we had our first experience of bangers and mash. Quite tasty. I enjoyed.

Anyways, yeah, should try and put some more photos up soon, this internet place doesn't seem to have safe USB ports.

oh, and thanks for all the messages, we are feeling special :)
Love heaps.
P and LX

Being a tourist in London

ahhh, the sun!!!!!

it has been an AMAZINGLY warm and sunny long weekend here, and, unfortunately, both Alex and my self are now looking a little pinker than normal. Worse than that, we are sunburnt at the same time as having a filthy rotten cold... sigh...

However, viruses aside, nothing could stop us from having a walk about this city on the weekend. We decided to do the tourist thang and on Alex's Birthday we bought tickets to go on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour (on open top double decker red buses - hence the sunburn!) and Thames river cruise.

Pictures??

hehehe... I plead being blonde.... if you turn your head 90 degrees to the left... some of the photos will look the right way around.... hehehe... sorry.

Anyways, we finished our tour on Sunday with shark and tatties from the Sherlock Holmes pub, very nice.

Thats all for now. If you want to know more about the photos, you will have to ask.

P and LX.

Made it ok...

So... after spending almost 4 hours sitting in a plane going to nowhere in Wellington, we have made the long haul out here to London.
Things of interest in our journey:
1. Getting to know Sydney airport for a whole 20 minutes.... (damn late planes and things... at least we did make our connecting flight though....)
2. Monsoon season in Hong Kong (picture to follow) My god, what HUGE airport!!!!!!

3. Eating waffles with NZ anchor butter in Hong Kong... hehehe...

4. Alex always seeming to get the only seat on the aircraft with a faulty tv monitor. (LX.. grrrr....)
5. The amazingly long queue at Heathrow for immigration... a couple of hundred people all waiting in lines like cattle waiting to be dipped! however, the immigration guy we had was surprisingly pleasant.
6. Meeting a FANTASTIC Hannah at Heathrow, with help to get us on the tube... what an amazing amazing person!!!!!!

So... yeah, not too jetlagged, although seem to be waking up at ridiculously early times (bloody 6am.... grrr...) That includes Alex.... I KNOW!!!!!

todays mission is finding a cell phone, so you can all try to text soon!!!!

more soon!!!!
P and LX

The Final Countdown (dododooo dooo, da da dan dan daan...)

So... this is it... the final countdown, 8 more sleeps and we will be on the plane to the Mighty Blighty!
Work is slowing down for both Alex and myself, and packing is becoming our main past-time, how boring!
We went out on the weekend and took a few nice shots of Wellington on a great sunny Sunday.

Well, thats all for now.

P. and LX