A touch of class...

I like weekends. People do interesting things at weekends. Some people do nothing but laze about at home at weekends. Admittedly I have done that before, but whenever possible I do like to do something.

This weekend we caught up with some of the uni-crew at their place it Putney... luvverly area that is. They haven't changed a bit! A typical 'boys' flat, I was particularly impressed with the contents of their freezer... good, healthy organic vegatables..... honest mum.

Saturday night we caught up with the uni ladies at a charity ball. After a nice pre-party session consisting of a game of 'F#$K YOU', we donned the DJ's and headed for the ball. Looking smart we were.

It was really good to see everyone again, and we larged it on the dancefloor, even incorporating a few of the 'Ceroc' moves we learnt the other week... albeit in some drunken, we kinda/kinda don't know what we're doing, but who cares sort of way... great fun.

Sunday we had a walk around Putney, through the park and around the Palace, a very 'family' orientated area. Too many sideways glances from Kat as the push-chairs rolled by for my liking though. Managed to avoid most of them.

This will make you laugh. Putney is only 18 miles from where we live, but it took one and a half hours to get there. And that's in average traffic. Isn't London great?

You see that though - that's sunshine that is!

The importance of being idle

Good title for an Oasis song I think. It's also what I'm feeling like at the moment, a bit idle! Having now not worked for... some time and desperate to get back into things. It's been a slow going for me, with about 30 job applications and just a single response so far. Still, it's potentially a good one, so fingers crossed.

Kat on the other hand has had great success. She's currently temping at Deloitte, with other options in the pipeline too. I'll not say too much here, but things are looking rosy for her... proud of the gal.

Well, had a couple of weeks here now and feeling much better (finally). Still, I went out for a run last night with Kat, Cass and Steve and nearly died.... seem to have lost a lot of fitness since we left NZ. Now why would that be? Speaking of runnning, we went for a long one a few days back early in the morning, across the frosted fields. It actually looked quite nice. The hills weren't quite as steep as Queenstown, but still enough to have us gagging for breath.

The attitude of people of London ranges from funny to disgusting. Drivers are aggressive all the time. Litter and dumping is a huge problem. I was walking through town yesterday when a guy finished his pack of nuts and basically threw the packet straight at me. There was a bin about 2 metres further on his left. I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen people dropping cans and just want to give them a slap and point out the nearest bin. I would, but for the fear of being stabbed or shot if I did! Anyway, enough of the eco-warrior rant.

The photo's here then. The first one's the view from the front room of the flat. The second ones the local pub (which we haven't been in yet!). They were both taken early in the morning, so a little dark and grey... but that's kind of how it always looks in winter! No, it's not that bad, really. Today it's sunny and is topping out at 3 degrees - roll on Summer!


Things in the flat are working out well. We got the stuff back from NZ, but I had to shed a few tears and sell my amp and give my speakers to my brother. There's just no way they'd fit in here. Still, you can't have everything.

Have caught up with a few people since I've been back, but we're heading to a ball on Saturday night, so should see a few more. No one has grown a second head while we've been away. In fact, they are pretty much all doing the same things they were when we left. For more coin though of course.

Here's a view over London from Alexandra palace, which is on our back doorstep. It's on the 'long' running route and offers a good view over London on a clear day... I'm told.

Ok, more positively. Shows. Entertainment. Cheap flights. Shopping. Oh yes, that's what it's all about. Sadly, I don't yet have the money to go splashing out, but hopefuly I soon will have. The West end has loads and loads of shows on all the time, so I imagine we'll frequent a fair few of these. Shopping is unlimited here, although a recent trip down Oxford street was almost enough to put me off! I did my ignorant tourist bit on the way back too, diving into the closing doors of the tube train mistakingly thinking that they'd stop rather than dismember me. Wrong. Brusised and embarrassed I was, but the others had a good giggle. Briliant.

I like Tesco. It's started doing everything... not just food. I bought some work shirts there (positive thinking) for 4 quid each, bargain. And they survived the initial wash, which you have to do to avoid the obvious "I've just bought this shirt" look. They also do househould stuff, toys, DVD's and electronics, therefore giving the male half of a relationship an escape from the games of trolley dodgems that go on in these aisled supermarkets.

For those UK mates, here's a great site which I've been reading up on since being back to save all kinds of money. No nonsense advice on everything from savings and loans to cheapest telephone calls. A good read, especially for tight ar$es like me!

Oh, and if you want to find out the cheapest petrol in your area, go here. And if you want to find out how much people paid for their houses, go here. See, you do get something useful from reading my waffle.

One final thing for now. We did Ceroc last week. It's a dancing thing baby, yeah.

Simply put, it is the sexy side of Salsa meets the energy of Rock n Roll. Gene Kelly dances with Jennifer Lopez.

To me, it's like old school jive. Not that I'm that old, but I've seen Grease. Good fun though I must admit and a welcome venture out of the flat. Man I need a job. Speaking of which, I have 2 new e-mails with a potential 2582 jobs. Off I go then...

Welcome to Lun-dun

Well, here we are. After seeing in the new year in Nottingham and catching up with a few mates there, we're finally 'down South' to begin our new adventure. Our transport down her was our new £925 '96 Astra, a dark purple 'P' reg beast, with 5dr's and central locking... the essential requirements. Why? I'm too lazy now to get out of my drivers seat to fold it forward and let people in the back. People forgetting to lock their doors (not naming any names) means central locking is crucial too. The drive down from Skegness in the new 'mo-beel' was going great until we got to London and had to stop at traffic lights. Dip the clutch... and... nothing, the engine cut out. Great. From then on, every stop resulted in the same thing. We knew it needed a new exhaust sensor, which we've now got fitted thanks to Steve, so fingers crossed it's all good from now on. Does bare feet on oak laminate flooring count as touching wood?

The purple warrior (suggested names on a postcard please) was only the beginning of my 2006 troubles. My first night in the new flat was a sleepless one, with my chest suddenly deciding to fill with some ghost-busters-esque slime, which made breathing and consequently sleeping bloody difficult. 2 days, no sleep and 2 midnight trips to A & E later, I'm cleared of having anything more than than a bad chest infection. This is good news, especially seeing the doctors '?Pneumonia + recent return from Thailand' comment on my assessment card. I was beginning to think I shouldn't have eaten all that Thai chicken after all! The inhaler they gave me on the second visit has done a great job of replacing the 'nebulizer' (cool name) that brought my panic, asthma attack-like breathing fits under control. I can truly sympathise with those with asthma now, as it's a bloody scary feeling when you can't get your breath. 3 days without sleeping a wink drives you to the brink of insanity too! By the 3rd night I was pulling my hair out and driving myself silly. Thank god I'm finally on the recovery side of the ordeal though (think I'll find some proper wood this time).

So you're reading this new 2006 blog entry. Which means that I'm back on the net. Even as a self-confessed computer nerd, I didn't realise how much I'd miss not having access to all the wonderful information and communication tools it offers. Looking for a second had car, checking out the broandband net deals, the latest mobile phone deals, train times, banking, recipe's, car maintenance, looking for jobs, are all things I've needed to hold off on until I got to my brothers to take over his computer! But now I'm back online in London....wa ha ha ha.....

So London then. The capital. The big one. Haven't seen much of it yet admittedly. In fact I know the flat inside out and that's about it. There's a 24hr Tesco about 3 miles away, with an IKEA a bit further on. Oh yeah, the hospitals about 3 miles away too. The flat itself is a small, tidy (very) affair, 10 minutes walk to the tube station, which I assume will be the way of getting to work (when I get around to it).

TV... is great! I've must say I've really missed the comedy and sense of humour of the brits, dry, rude, crude and witty, it's just... different. Radio is good too, Radio 1 is back on in the car, with the usual voices bringing good cheer to counter-balance the grey skies and crowded roads. Footbal, oh yeah, good to have football back. Had a great ill weekend watching the FA cup 3rd round games. On my single excursion to IKEA I caught a glimpse of a local Powerleague ground, so it'll be 5-a-side for me again soon.

Organic food. What's all that about? Well, it seems everyone has gone organic mad since we left, and supermarkets here are devoting 'heaps' of space to organic foods, which are much better than traditional evil chmemical foods, but are also about 20% more expensive... funny that. It also seems that stores have gone over the top with their names, so a fresh chicken is now labelled 'Free Range, corn fed, stress free, killed nicely chicken'... well nearly.

Rights that's enough waffle at the moment. Better start looking for a job before I forget what work is.