Friday 24 Feb: Payday - yay

Well for me anyway, although the initial excitement of my payday was marred by the fact that my company stuffed it up again!!!! Although this time i get the money back unlike last time. But i think in light of that they will not be getting another chance, and i have begun looking for another provider.

We haven't really got any plans for this weekend. What about you guys?

Work is really really really quiet, so I thought that I would write a quick note to you guys while I was wait for this laboriously (?sp) slow computer to do what i want it to.

I am suffering from writers block so will try again later

Gem

Thursday 23 Feb

Today it tried to snow!!!!

It landed on your hair and jacket in a form that looked like snow but there was nothing white on the ground.....

Netball was good on Tuesday night - there was a bit of confusion with the women's team which made it difficult to concentrate - we ended up with 11/12 people on our team - that should have been sorted though. Had a fantastic mixed game, we were playing really well winning very convincingly in the first half (led by leading goal scorer Duncan). Then in the second half they started to catch us, but i still thought we were ahead by nose, but apparently not. The umpire said that the score was 20-9 to them!! What was funny was even the other team was protesting saying that the score was wrong. So it was a bit disappointing but we had fun. It was bitterly cold though - picture this: me in my thermals, trackies, tshirt, jumper beenie and gloves running round the netball court. Even Dunc had his thermals on (well the top anyway)

Well time to go home (I am still at work). I shall go put my thermies on for the walk to the bus stop.

Later

Tuesday 21 Feb: Arrrgghh It's Nearly March

Greetings from London! Yesterday it was quite chilly here, there a was a lovely little breeze that was rendering the top of my ears very cold.

Furthermore on Sunday it was raining, like proper UK rain which is a little bit rude, we were all thinking that the bad weather was over.... apparently not.

On Saturday we went to Nottinghill. We got ourselves a little map and did the walk of fame. Well part of it anyway. We saw where George Orwell lived and Jimi Hendrix died, where the world chess champion lived, we had a smooch on the corner where Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant kissed in the move Nottinghill.

Of course we went to the bookstore from the movie, and also the blue door..... which isn't there anymore (well the frame is but the door was sold) - it is now black and looking a bit run down.

Then it was onto the restaurant from Bridget Jone's Diary before getting lost in window shopping. Agent Provocateur (sp? - lingerie anyway)... very nice very pricey, a particuarly lovely set i looked at had a g string for £154 and a matching bra for £250.....

Nottinghill was well famous before the movie came out. Portebello Road, Portabello Road....... (Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks) - The Portabello Road markets. There is a huge antique market there, but new goods and fresh produce are also sneaking in. I thoroughly recommend it.

On Sunday we did have intentions of hitting the Playboy museum but we didn't get going in time so Rhian, Duncan and I went to Harrods. And you all know what Harrods has... Krispy Kremes..... mmm mmm. Apparently it has lots of shopping too but i wouldn't know, i was eating donuts!! Ha just joking :) We did window shop and there wasn't much temptation to buy, because even if we had been paid we wouldn't have been able to afford anything (except krispy kremes ;)

That evening we went bowling with Spongebob, Jim Jam and she who shall-not-be-named :), and some of their friends. I learnt that i need practice at bowling, but i think i did get one strike and we had a good time.

Hmph!!! My husband sucks at communication.... He didn't tell me that he had put up a post so now ihave just written all the same stuff. Well tough - you can read it anyway! Oh and by the way Duncan Transformers is spelt with an 'n' not a 'b'

I am taking my ball and going home (well back to work)

Ruby Anniversary

Post news.
Thats right people, this post marks the ruby anniversary of this blog... sort of anyway. What I mean is that this is the 40th post. Not bad for someone who has had an online journal account for about 4 years now and made 3 posts :)

Money News
Anyway, last friday was a bit of a stressful day. We found out that my employer, Transport for London, forgot to approve my timesheets for the previous week so they would be approved with this weeks. Thats all well and good but WE HAVEN't GOT ANY MONEY!!!!. Basically I won't get paid now until about this friday or next monday (depending on when the funds clear) so we still are not doing anything much as we only just have enough money for transport to work and food etc. When the money starts flowing normally it will be all okay, but we have been in the UK now for over a month with the only pay being about £100 from Gem's tavern wench job. Big thanks to both sets of parents for helping out and also to the flatmates who are helping by not demanding money we technically owe them for stuff they have paid for, such as our bond.

Weekend News
On saturday me, Gem and Rhian went out into Notting Hill and down Portabello Road. We pickd up a map of the area and went out to see all the stuff from the movies. We saw the travel book shop and the blue door and wandered down the markets for hours. Technicallt the place where the blue door was is now filled by a black door as the blue door was sold, but I guess we saw the door frame that held the blue door. The markets are incredible and when we have some money we are going back. Gem wants lots of clothes, I just have my eye on 2 t-shirts with the trabsformer logos on them :)

Saturday night some a few other people came round and they played poker. Texas-Holdem like you see on the telly. They do play for money so again until we have some we're not playing our own hands. I did however play with Bron and Rhian as they didn't even know the rules/hands but wanted to play. In the end Bron won £20 so she gave me £10.

Sunday me Gem and Rhian (again) went out to Harrods. Oh. My. Lordy!. What a place! It is seriously massive and has stuff you would be scared to walk out the store with its so expensive! The place itself is very impressive and even has an entire area made to look like an Egyptian temple. We founfd lots of stuff we liked but bugger all we could afford. We even saw a fountain pen for £24,000. The most expensive pen they have ever had there was about £100,000.... thats enough to buy our house and land. They also had a "toy" Hummer.... for £21,000. I mean it looks pretty mean but you can buy a brand new Ford Festiva for £8,000!!! Even a 2004 S-Type Jag only costs £19,000. Come on people...seriously! One thing in Harrods we could afford was Krispy Kreme doughnuts. These are the best doughnuts in the world. Bar none. I think you can get them in the Sydney Airport but thats it for Oz.... sorry people.

Sunday arvo we went out tenpin bowling. Bron and Andy paid for us as we weren't going to go and they know what its like to be broke :) 11 of us went and in the end Andy was the winner by a fair margin. Suprising, Bron, who could hardly pick up the bowling ball let alone throw it came in second... though I think she was too tipsy to notice :) Me and Gem both scored the same... awww isn't that sweet. Sunday night was pretty quiet as we were all tired from Saturday night.

Anyway, thats it for now. Speak soon. With luck we should have our connection up tonight but the telcos here seem just as unreliable as good ol' Telstra so I won't be holding my breath.

A-river-durchy,
Duncan.

Friday 17 Feb 2006

Hi everyone!!!!! Here is a summary of our last week

Last friday after my first full working week in months, i got home "exhausted" and was determined to have a night in. Bron cooked pork chops and veges for dinner. Conversation revolved around the art of getingt the downstairs toilet to flush - everyone has their own system:

• Bron: "lift the handle up then press down"
• Rhian: "naaaah you gotta pump it"
• Gemma: "it's all in a quick and forceful wrist action downwards"
• Duncan: "pump the handle and hold it down"

Slowly the conversation drifted towards going out to the redback after dinner. The redback is another pub similar to the Walkabout chain (which are the aussie pubs here in the UK). I was informed in my ignorance that the Walkabout is the aussie pub and the Redback is the kiwi pub.... when i showed more ignorance by saying "..... but it's called the 'Redback'?" I was quickly informed by the closest kiwi, that NZ has redback spiders they just haven't been discovered yet !?!?! :). A fun night of dancing was had by all especially Alex (our token pom) who while she was skipping home fell over on her face giving herself a black eye and grazed forehead.... needless to say we haven't seen her since then.

Belinda and Luke came for a sleep over on Saturday night. We went to an amazing little Greek restaurant just down the road, filled with character, fantastic food, live entertainment, and very 'uniquely' decorated toilets. We had the meze - which consists of the waiter continuously bringing out samples of almost everything on the menu..... when you think that their can't possibly eat anything more he asks "would you like some more food" It was sooo delicious.

Monday night flat dinner: Roast chicken and veges (thanks Rhian)

Tuesday night: no flat dinner. The keggers (that's our team name derived from the word KEG which is spelt with the first letters of our street address king edwards gardens) made its debut in mixed netball, followed by three of us girls playing womens afterwards. It was valentines day to and duncan continues his good work by buying all the girls in our house flowers ........ yes yes isn't he sweet :)

Wednesday night flat dinner: lamb chops and veges (thanks Dunc, and i mashed the spuds :)
Thursday night flat dinner: Burritos mmmm courtesy of Spongebob.
(see mum we are looking after ourselves :)

We seem to fit into our house pretty well. The lines of communication are alway open but usually consist of: "i want that one" "yeah i know" "computer says.. no" "but i am a lady" or any other random quotes from Little Brittain.

Work is good. My HPC registration is finally through hooray!!!!!!! I can now start looking for a real job. Not that being a therapy assistant isn't a real job but you know what i mean. The market is a bit slow so it will probably take a while to find a position which is fine because technically i supposed to be here for another few weeks.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SONIA

The wonderful thing about my assistant position is that i have a lot of typing to do..... this allows me to update my blog while looking busy (he he). But all jokes aside i need to get back to work. I hear whispers on the wind that our internet at home will be ready today or monday so photos wont be too far away.....

love you all
gem

Friday 10 Feb

Well i know that i said i would write soon.... but it is not my fault i promise!! The internet at our new house is taking a little bit longer to install than originally anticipated, grrrr but hopefully it won't be too much longer.

Well we have been living and working inLondon for a week now and it seems so much longer than that. You may be wondering how i am writing this if we don't have an internet connection? Well rumour has it that i am still at work during work hours, but this is yet to be confirmed ;)

Where to begin? Both Duncan and I are enjoying the convenience of our new digs in proximity to work. Although yesterday it was not so convenient for me as there was a massive traffic jam due to a restaurant blowing up and i had to get off the bus and walk home... but it only took an hour so could have been worse.

So far everything is still good at the KEG (King Edwards Gardens :), Duncan and I are slowly finding our place amongst these people who have all been living together for a while. They are like a family and are very welcoming. Here is some info about our housemates

• Andrew (Andy, andypants, spongebob): accountant (Oz),
• James (jim jam): customer service (Oz)
• Kerry (Kez): can't remember (Saffa)
• Rhian: sales (NZ)
• She-who-cannot-be-named: rumoured to be working as a nanny in Ireland (NZ)
• Nemo: mistress of the house (UK)
• Stitch: master of the house (and any small dark space that he can crawl into) (UK)

Apart from a minor shower blockage everything is wicked! We take delivery of our furniture this afternoon, so will be able to put our socks and jocks in drawers. And for those who are wondering, we have a cleaning roster :)

My HPC registration is due in at any time - probably next week or the week after. Then i can finally start to find some real work :) Although this job is quite interesting. Among my upcoming duties being an assistant to OT is relaxation therapy and teaching lifeskills. Yes you heard right, i will be teaching people stress management and organisation, time management etc - does anyone else see the irony in that :)

I got paid today.... from the olton tavern that is. And yes you guessed it after hearing me do all the moaning about allthose shifts that i had to do, i raked in a super 100quid -woohoo. (I made more last week in two days than all those shifts at the pub). We celebrated by going out to dinner last night to one of our local pubs. We had lasagne and spaghetti, dunc had a pint, and a hugenormous bowl of chips for 10 quid.... now that is something to write home about. I am not sure whether i mentioned in my last post about the variety of restaurants and pubs we have at our finger tips... we are going to this apparently fabulous yet quirky greek place tomorrow night with luke and belinda.

Other news: i have started a netball team. Well acutally i have joined one and started one. The members of our house (and a couple of others) are joining a mixed comp, and i have also signed up for a real comp with ladies only. So that should be fun and you know i need the exercise.

So now we wait patiently for our first pay check.... although it will be a little pitiful (we both only worked 2 days last week) it will be enough to tide us over to the next pay day, which (God Love working for the UK Government) is only a week away.

We think of you all, all the time and hope everyone is happy.

Love Gem

New jobs, new house!

Hi people!

So there has been a bit of a change in our lives. It has gone from us living in Birmingham (well Solihull actually) with no money and no jobs, to both of us having jobs, having a new house in a great area and starting to plan the next holidays. Big thanks to my Nannie for putting us up for a few weeks and sharing her house with us. Not this coming next weekend but the following one we are going to go back there and actually get to see Birmingham and take her out as a thank you.

Anyway, Gem is currently working as Physio Assistant as she can't be a Physio here yet (still waiting on registration that she applied for in August - should be next week actually) and I am doing web/application work for Transport for London. 35 hours per week? Nice. I get into work at about 9, take a 1/2hour lunch where I can buy a massive baguette for only £1.50 and still finish work at 4:30! I'm home by 5. Sweet.

We should the internet connection set up at the share house very soon. We are just waiting on the Telco to set it up at their end. The share house we are in is massive, and though we have 5 others in the house with us its not crowded. We all get on great too. On the evning we moved in we were greeted with Slim Dusty's "I'd love to have a beer with Duncan" and after putting down our bags they took us down the road to an Aussie pub called the Redback for beers! We have two Aussie boys, Andrew and Jamie, two Kiwi girls, Bronwyn and Rhian, and one South African girl, Kerry, with us.

Our next little trips that we are looking into are Ireland for St. Patricks Day, maybe Spain for Easter (somewhere warm), and we are also looking into Octoberfest in Germany and La Tomatina in Spain (the big tomato fight!). We also still have Rome for 2 weeks booked for May 13th for 2 weeks and we still have tentative plans for the Greek Isles and Andorra for Snowboarding! Guess we better start saving our money!

Anyhoo people, back to work for me. Speak soon! Oh, and photos of Birmingham and the new house are coming soon.

Duncan.

Ha!!! About three hours, maybe four after I posted the last post we went to have a look at a couple of sharehouses

The first in Willesdon green was tiny and way over priced!!

The second however was perfect!! It is in Acton/Ealing which is west London, it is a big old house that has been renovated and our room is huge (with an open fireplace tat works). It has 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a huge kitchen and alounge. It also has a back yard and a bbq for when the sun comes out. And it has internet yay!!

After almost loosing it we were offered it, and accepted immediately. So in less than 24hrs we packed our bags moved from birmingham to London with only one job and no where to live, got another job and found a place to live woohoo!

I had my first day at work today which was not very challenging, but i must tell myself that it is not pulling pints :) Dunc has just walked back in the door from his first day - he started at 10 slack!!

It took me 2 hours and 4 buses to get to work today from Luke and Belinda's but once we move into our new house tonight it will only take me 28 minutes on 1 bus. Yay!!

Well have to go and pack and move house

ciao

Wed 1 Feb

Hello all,

Well in the space of two days, we have both become employed, and we both start tomorrow. Crazy!!

We were in London Tuesday when i was offered a physiotherpay assistant job (registration still has not come through!) to start Thurs. So we rushed back to Solihull, packed our bags and rushed back to London, we were only back at Luke and Bels for 10min when Dunc was called and offered a job.

There were a few stressful moments when he ummed and ahhed about waiting for tomorrow when he should find out whether he would get a nice marketing position - possibly. But he opted for the way more cushy working for the government position at Transport for London...... and also starts tomorrow!!!!

So much for the house hunting he was going to do while i was at work. I guess we will have to do it tonight:)

We are looking for a house with internet so our communications will be more frequent.

Chat soon
G&D