It's snowing - it's snowing!!!!

Okay it only lasted about 10 minutes but it was a blizzard! Apparently will snow more tonight. Very exciting - I'm such a kid when it comes to snow...yay!

BTW - This is just a picture from web - if it looks like this at our house tonight will publish photo!

Bath and beyond

Hi everyone,

It's been another busy couple of weeks. A spot of weekend travels and then off to Europe for work - roll on Istanbul and Geneva!

But first things first.

Last weekend it was time for another day trip and after many strong recommendations (Thanks Jill!), it was off to Bath - the roman city.

We took the back roads rather than the motorway so we could see the sights and passed through many a cute wee village. Of particular mention is Corsham - cobbled streets with beautiful houses.

Bath was in a valley surrounded by hills with hedge rowed fields. It was one of the first towns built by the romans and made famous by the stunning architecture and roman baths (hot water spings). After queueing to get into the city for over 20 minutes and eventually finding a park after driving around and around...and around and eventually stalking someone back to their carpark we ventured into the city.

As I say, Bath has some beautiful buildings - all the same sandy coloured stone. Narrow cobbled streets and a lot of people! Tourists as far as the eye could see - and it was still winter!

We looked around the abbey that had the most amazing vaulted ceiling and huge stained glass windows. The exterior is famous for the stone angels climbing Jacob's Ladder to heaven. We thought we might look around the Roman Baths but the queue was a mile long so flagged that until our next trip. We went down to the river Avon and were amazed with the fountain type feature in the centre and the wonderful bridge with shops etc on it.

Then on to the circus (similar buildings all curving around a central park with huge trees) where we saw our first flowers of spring! Just like Hagley Park in the spring (bring it on!). Then a quick saunter to the Royal Cresent which was a huge row of houses once again curving round but this time curving round an enormous park that looked out over the town. Bet they cost a bundle!

Must admit that by now it was getting a bit cold and the feet were getting a bit sore so we decided to leave the rest of Bath for another day. Great trip though and a highlight.

That week Bridge worked on all her woodwork and had a great time sanding and stripping. The next step is staining and applying the Danish Oil. Unfortunately the UK just doesn't seem to get customer service. She uses a product called Briwax made about four hours north of here. You can't buy from the factory and the only distributor in Newbury can't seem to get the order right and are telling us they make what we're after (water based stain). Funny, coz Bridge can buy it at the Mitre 10 about five minutes from our house in Auckland - we're resorting to getting Glenda to buy it for us in Auckland and send it to us...thanks Glenda...Jaffa Cakes are on their way! Amazing when the factory is only four hours away!

The next big news was an unexpected trip to Istanbul and Geneva for work. I'm working on a project with some people in Turkey that necesitated a trip to visit them. The flight was early (had to leave home at 5am). I was bitterly disappointed that as we drove away from our village it started snowing! I have been waiting to see it full on snowing ever since we got here and the moment I leave - it starts! Apparently it didn't amount to much that day but snowed full on two days later - Bridge took some great photos so look forward to seeing those developed.

Arrived in Istanbul about 2pm local time (although flight is only 3 and a half hours). First adventure was trying to get from airport to the Turkey headquarters. My taxi driver didn't speak English and I didn't know a word of Turkish. He eventually worked out where I wanted to go through a series of hand gestures and slow talking on my part (not to mention having the address written down on a piece of paper in my bag - in english tho!). We then took off - my god - I thought they were bad in Rome - wow! The drivers took no head of lane markings and it was basically a free for all. With only about 2 inches between each car! Very scary.

On arriving at the headquarters, security was extremely tight (airport type security) and no one spoke english so was finding it difficult to let them know who I was meeting. I only knew the name of the other UK person who was out there. Luckily a quick phonecall and it was sorted out. It was then straight into a two and a half hour meeting about comms. Great people though and fascinating to learn about the Turkish business culture. Sutha (my UK based buddy out there) then invited me out for a meal with a colleague of his. After another harrowing taxi ride to hotel to check in and a more sedate taxi ride to the restaurant, we enjoyed an beautiful meal in a restaurant on top of a skyscraper looking out over Istanbul at night. The mosques were beautifully lit and you could see ferries skooting around on the mediterranean sea. A stunning vista. I had a traditional Turkish meal of Mezze (platter with different types of finger food and chickpea dips etc) and Roast Lamb Shanks. The lamb was beautiful and just fell off the bone. Conversation was also good - great night all round. It was then home to the hotel and fell into bed exhausted.

The next morning it was off to Geneva...as you do. Will fill you in on that later...

Ciao

Geoff

Hey all,

I always start with an apology but it's been about two weeks since the last blog.

It's been a busy few weeks actually. We've got our stuff now so it's been superb to have our stuff around us.

We've done our best to get out and about on the weekends and the weather has been exceptionally kind to us. In fact, everyone said it would be cold, dark, grey and wet over here.

Yes it's been cold - bloody cold actually!

Yes it's been dark - started out as about 4.00 but now not getting dark until about 5.20

Yes it's been grey - but for the last month or so it's always been sunny on the weekends!

But wet - hasn't rained much at all. Only a couple of times in the last eight weeks!

Having said all that, it's been hard to hear stories of wonderful kiwi summers so we're both looking forward to spring sprunging in about four weeks.

Okay - getting out on the weekend. First stop Oxford - what a beautiful town. Sun was shining (as i say) and although cold it was a 'frost' type of cold so not so bad.

The architecture was superb and the walk down the main street was fantastic. Bridge read out on the history of Oxford from the lonely planet on the way up there so we had a good idea of the history of the place while we we're walking around.



We thought the Market was amazing - an indoor market filled with shoe stores, fruit & veg, butchers and fishmongers - really cool!

We went to the Turk Tavern for lunch. This was down three thin wee alleyways just next to the Bridge of Sighs (the photo on far left above). This was the pub that featured prominently in Inspector Morse. It was also where Mr Bill Clinton 'smoked but didn't inhale' a special cigarette. It was filled with students already starting to booze at 3pm but I guess you get that in a university town.

So that was our trip to Oxford. We'd have loved to stay longer and seen more so plan to go back in the spring/summer and stay overnight.

The next weekend we went to the 'thee-ay-terr' which was exceptionally nice. The theatre was called the Haymarket in Basingstoke - a bigger town about half an hour from Newbury. We saw a show called 'The Shell Seekers' based on a book by Rosamunde Pilcher. It starred Susannah Yorke who is an academy award nominated actress (a man for all seasons and they shoot horses don't they). The acting was superb all round - not one weak part. The story was great and the set etc worked exceptionally well. All in all, it was probably the best play we've seen in a very very long time. Great! And so good to go out to the theatre again. We met an older gentleman who was sitting next to us and it was great to talk to someone about the play in the interval. He was a fascinating chap and had lots of stories to tell. All in all a lovely night out!


The next weekend it was another trip out. This time in to London. In anticipation of long summer evenings in our garden, we bought four deck chairs on eBay (£4 the lot - great deal!). Unfortunately we had to go in to London to get them. And they're not really something you can lug around on the tube and then train home! So it was our first experience in driving in central London. We had to go to Bermondsey on the south side of the river. So we got our AAroute from the internet (filled with turn left here, continue through lights here, left lane and then turn left at next road - great actually) and with only a couple of 'oops missed it' moments we arrived - and on time too - two hours 15 minutes door to door.

Picked up the chairs and were surprised at what good nick they were in. They're green canvas director's chairs and will be superb in the summer.

Then next plan was to catch up with Ben (used to work with him at Westpac in Wellington - the guy I've stayed with a few times when in London). We drove to his area (over Tower Bridge and everything!) and parked the car in the middle of London. We took a bit of a walk along the Thames and saw Tower of London, Globe, Anchor pub (where Shakespeare got drunk after a show), St Paul's, the Monument etc and eventually found a nice warm pub and grabbed some lunch.

A quick wander back to the car and then it was time to go home...but what way is that? I thought we would be able to just retrace our steps...ahh...one way streets Geoff...doh! So we jumped in the car and just started driving. We spotted one of those roadsigns with a airplane image - aha Heathrow airport - that's on the way. Of course, London has (I think) four airports and Gatwick was the wrong direction to be going in! After a little directionn adjustment we were on the road again (yet another John Denver reference - this is getting a little sad). Bridge did an awesome job of navigating us through the streets of London and we eventually found the Ring Road - and it was a case of follow the signs. Although Ring Road isn't as big as it sounds. We drove past Hyde Park, the back of B Palace and even drove alongside Harrods!

After a long trip home (about three hours) it was great to finally drive in our driveway. On Sunday we just pottered and in the afternoon sat in our deckchairs in our garden with a glass of wine watching the sun set (admittedly we were wrapped up warm) - a taste of things to come!

So that's the visiting and sightseeing stuff. Work is going well and my projects are starting to get a bit juicy now. Am working on our new sponsorship programme and get to go to a conference in Nyon (just outside of Geneva) in Switzerland in a couple of weeks. And a trip to Turkey also seems on the cards - yay!

Bridge has started looking for work and been to see a few agencies. Would you believe she has to get a character reference from a friend who has known her for two years or more! Glenda get ready for some bribery!

Computer was unable to be fixed so they're replacing it - with a newer flasher model which is quite good! It will be good to have it hooked up at home - having to bring laptop home every night and connect it all up is a bit of a pain. By the way - loving broadband!

And that's all the news really...

Will blog again soon

Ciao