Monday 30/01

Well I started off to say that "we are back in London", but then as I perused the prior entries I realised we hadn't actually mentioned anything about the last time we were in London.

So briefly, the first week that we arrived we went jumped on a coach and went to London so I could meet with some agencies who i had been in contact with before i left. It also gave us an opportunity to stay with Luke and Belinda and go out to dinner etc etc.

Last Thursday, Australia Day, we had planned to come down again and spend Australia day with a couple of Aussies that we know at the Walkabout pub, but after careful scrutiny of our wallets (which didn't take long) we decided we would just go to the walkabout in Birmingham by our lonesomes. But even this wasn't to be.

Duncan had a phonecall!!!! A job interveiw in Marlow on Friday!! Yay.
Then Duncan had another phonecall!!!! A job interveiw in London on Monday.

So rather than go out drinking on Australia day, we spent it trying to work out where in the world Marlow was, how he was going to get there for less than 50quid, and where was his suit?

The next morning (Friday) we got him on the bus (he had to take a bus then three or four trains for a total of 3.5hours travel).
Then Duncan got another phonecall!!!! Another job interveiw on Monday/Tuesday in London. When it rains it pours.

Well his first interveiw was a little disasterous considering the time and money that it cost us to get there. Not his fault though. For those that understand computer things continue reading for those that don't skip to the next paragraph: somebody somewhere had stuffed up and the job should have been advertised as ASP.Net but was advertised as ASP - for those of you who don't know..... completely different languages! arrggg

So that brings me back to where we started, we are back in London. Caught the coach down yesterday (Sunday) arrived around midday and were met by Belinda and Luke and we went straight to the Natural History Museum (Free entry woohoo)http://www.nhm.ac.uk/. It was really good, very interactive for the little kiddies and Duncan and Luke. It had the stock standard stuff like fossils and taxidermy that you find but also cool things like a human biology section and some amazing dinosaur animatronics (that had some of the aforementioned little kiddies very frightened).

It was Chinese New Year so we Luke and Belinda took us to their favourite Asian foodcourt in Oriental City.

This morning Duncan has gone off to his first interveiw. Thankfully whoever it is above, below or to the side of L&Bs apartment that has unsecured wireless internet is online this morning so i can post this :). Fingers crossed and will keep youupdated. Out of the two that he is going for this week this one is the one he wants.... who knows if all goes well my days as a tavern wench could be short lived

ciao

Gem

Birmingham

Well, well, well... three holes in the ground. Today I am in Birmingham sponging off another unsecured wireless while Gem is at a health and safety wokshop. I have been wandering around the town for a bit and done some banking (it is no nice to see banks open on saturdays!) and am now sitting down for a quick bite to eat. More exploring later this arvo.... oh if only I had money! Anyway, while I've been sitting here I've updated the blogger a bit so you'll see 3 new galleries: Calgary Zoo, Montreal and Toronto. If you don't bother to look at any of our pics then I still highly recommend you check out the Montreal and Toronto galleries. Those two cities were amazing.

There is also a little movie that Gem made called "Hike to Deserter Falls"... quite amusing. Just so you know, Becky, our "guide", always seems to be getting lost and takes "shortcuts" and has quite a reputation amongst her friends :)

Anyway, the job hunting goes on. The rates of pay seem to vary dramatically, anything for my role from 12-15 pounds per hour to 400 pound/day! Yes please! There is actually one job going with that sort of rate hat I am suited for so fingers crossed eh?

Its getting busy in here (lunch time rush) so I must push off.

Bye peeps.
Me.

Fri 19 Jan

Well another day, another morning at the library.

I had another shift at the Olton Tavern last night, no tips though, although the bar manager told me he had better get me trained up on the bar quick, because with an accent like mine I'll clean up :)

Tomorrow I have a mandatory training course in Birmingham, not sure how I will get there, will have to look into the buses..... the training is for manual handling infection control etc, for if I ever get a real job :)

Tomorrow night we are also meeting more of the family - I will keep you posted
G

Tavern Wench

Yes that's what I am. Five years of university, over 6 months of preparation for this trip and I am stuck in the Olton Tavern earning £5/hr. :) Oh oops i did get a tip last night. £2 :)

Wouldn't be so bad except pays are done monthly and they have only just been done so I won't see a penny for another 3 -4 weeks.

Apart from that Solihull is a gorgeous quaint little town. At least I don't have to waste any of my earnings on bus fare as the tavern is 3 minutes walk down the road.

I have had a couple of nibbles for other jobs but nothing definite. Did get offered one on a cruise ship though......

The library computer is beeping at me that i only have a few minutes left. So must go

Hope you are all well.

Gemma

Its my birthday!

Hello again people, sorry its been a while but we've been missing the Internet for a while and we've been very busy! We are now in London and starting to look for jobs but onto more important matters.... It's my birthday!

Anyway, here is a real quick run down of what happened since the last post.

Jan 1 & 2 - We wandered around montreal some more as most places were closed for the public hoiday. Montreal is such a beautiful city.

Jan 3 - Shopping. Shopping. Shopping. Powered on for about 10 hours of serious shopping... even bought a new suitcase to hold it all! Met another nice Aussie guy in the hostel and saw one guy get thrown out of the hostel as he got into a fight inside and knocked out another guys tooth! Very exciting :)

Jan 4 - Packed up, some last minute shoe shopping, then headed back to the trains back to Toronto. Gems friends Olivia and Mike picked us up and we went back to their place.

Jan 5 to 8 - Spent a few days in Toronto with Olivia and Mike. Had a few sleep ins and went to Casa Loma and the CN Tower. The views from the CN tower are phenominal... pictures will be up soon. We wandered round chinatown and some markets and stuff like that with Olivia too and went out for dinner at a nice Sushi place. Finally got on a plane to come to the UK.

Jan 9 - Arrived at Heathrow... so sleepy. Left at 9pm from Toronto and arrive in UK at 10am but we lost 5 hours in the flight and didn't really sleep. Dad's friend Colin picked up up there and drove us all the way to Nannies in Solihull... Thanks so much Colin! Had some lunch, had a nap, unpacked then slept.

The rest will have to come tomorrow as I have 2 minutes left on this 'puter!

Ciao for now my brown cows....
Duncan.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! (1/1/2006)

Happy New Year everyone. Duncan and I hope that it will bring health and happiness to you all.

We left Calgary in the wee early hours of Dec 30. A friend of Becky's picked us up at the airport and as well as dropping us off at the trainstation he offered to take some of our baggage so that we wouldn't have to carry it all the way to montreal with us. Yay!!

Well due to one thing and another we missed the 9:30 train to Montreal, unfortunately the next 5 or so trains were all sold out so we remained in the trainstation until the 6:35 when the next train was due. By the time we finlly got to the hostel in Montreal it was the wee hours of the next morning :)

So on the day of the 31st we went down and walked around Old Montreal. Montreal was established in 1642, so there is a lot of beautiful architecture here. One of the highlightes of the day was a visit to the beautiful Basilique Notre Dame. http://www.basiliquenddm.org/ An amazingly ornate church considering that it is not all that old.

Old Montreal is so gorgeous, but on the day that we were there it was incredibly incredibly incredibly cold!!! About -24deg without the windchill so possibly -30 with windchill.

That evening we decided against the street party in Old Montreal with its live music and fireworks and opted for the slightly warmer pub down the road. It was a great night, and although we didn't get in til after 4am, it was all fun and games. Mum rest assured that nothing bad happened.....well almost nothing. I did have a little encounter with an icy parking lot while we were running home. Slipped on the ice and on my way down took Duncan down with me. No major injuries but some nice bruises to speak of.

Jan 1 2006!!!!!
After a little sleep in to ensure that we would remain civil to each other we went to the Biodome. This was amazing. Since the last olympics, the valedrome has been converted and is now home to 4 different ecosystems. It is sort of like a zoo, but probably a little bit more educational. We really enjoyed it.

Well it is off to beddy bies

Talk to you soon