Crossing the River

A 30th Birthday in Paris

Charles and I are currently in Paris. We decided to take a trip away for my 30th, and are really enjoying ourselves – especially as this is our first trip in ages that has actually been a holiday. We are here for a week so are looking forward to taking some time to relax and see the sights. We took the Eurostar over here on Friday after work, along with Si, Des, Roger, Raewyn and Debs. They all were kind enough to join us for the weekend, and we are staying here until Saturday next , week. We are staying in a lovely (but small) apartment near the Eiffel Tower which is nice and central, which makes it very easy to get anywhere.
 
So far we love Paris. It is a beautiful city, and so much more open and green than London is, and also has some beautiful architecture. Yesterday we spend quite a while wandering the streets enjoying the sights, including walking down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. We then had a lovely lunch in a very French cafe, and then went to the Montmartre area where we wandered around a very beautiful cemetery (yeah, I know it sounds strange) where we saw Fourier’s and Foucault’s graves. After that we went back to the apartment and had a bit of a nap before dinner. Unfortunately before we were due to go out of dinner Si, who is highly allergic to nuts, ate some peanut butter flavoured chips (obviously not realising that they were peanut flavoured) which meant that he had an allergic reaction ending in him having to inject himself with adrenaline. We then spend quite a while trying to contact their insurance company, and then trying to find a hospital or doctor that spoke English. After almost getting the fire department and a gynecologist sent out to us we finally managed to get a doctor who would come around to check him out (although he didn’t actually turn up!). Si and Des obviously didn’t make it out to dinner, but the rest of us managed to go out for a late dinner at a very nice Art Nouveau styled restaurant. I really like the decor and architecture of the Art Nouveau period, so was really pleased to find somewhere where that was preserved. The food was amazing, with Raewyn saying that her mushroom soup was the best she had ever tasted, Charles’ Creme Brulee was the best he had ever tasted, and Roger saying that his dessert (waffle with Creme Brule on top) was the best dessert he had had – ever.
 
After dinner we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower and met up with Des and Si (who was feeling better thankfully) and were in time to see the 1am light show on the tower. The Eiffel tower is of course something everyone has seen pictures of, but seeing it in real life is something else. It is absolutely massive, and looks gorgeous at night. Being there at the start of my 30th was very special, and having Charles, and some of my friends there made it extra special.
 
This morning we all had a bit of a sleep in, as the night before had been pretty busy for everyone. Charles woke me up with a pile of presents, including a beautiful hand made card styled after an Art Nouveau tile we had seen, and Des went out and got us Pain au Chocolat for breakfast. A great start to the day!
 
We then went and had lunch with Si and Des, who had missed out on the dinner the night before. We managed to find the same cafe that Si and Des had gone to for his birthday the year before and sat down to have a nice lunch and read through our guide book for things to do for the rest of the day. Imagine our surprise when we saw a picture of the very cafe that we were in, including the waiter who was currently serving us. Des showed him the guide book (assuming he had seen it before) and the look of surprise and delight on his face was priceless. He then went and showed all the other staff in the cafe, and then asked us (in French) where we had got the book, and if he could buy it off us. We tried to explain that it belonged to the apartment where we were staying, but didn’t quite have the French for it, so after a while decided just to give it to him. He was very very pleased, and gave us free coffee as a thank you. We left really feeling like we had made his day – -and wondering how we might replace our appartment’s guide book.
 
After that we went for a boat cruise down the River Seine which was a really nice way to get an idea of the layout of the city. Paris has heaps of bridges, and even more museums, a lot of which we saw from the boat. After the cruise it was off for gelato, and then home to say goodbye to Si, Des and Raewyn who were off back to London on the Eurostar. After a weekend of eating out Charles and I decided to have a simple dinner, so got some fresh bread, cheese, ham and tomatoes, and had some very tasty sandwiches along with a bottle of French wine.
 
All in all it has been a really nice birthday weekend, and since we are on holiday for the week, I feel like my birthday is actually going to last that long. It is so nice to get away and relax, and it has made me realise why we are over here, and how many places we still have to see. So far 30 isn’t treating me too badly, and I am really looking forward to seeing what comes next.
 
Thank you to everyone who has sent me birthday emails, texts, and Facebook messages. I wish I was able to see you all today. That is the only downside to being so far away. I miss you all, and wish you could be here with me.

 Mary

And that’s why I love London

Today Charles and I had lunch at Fulham Palace (its our local coffee bar), then we went to The British Museum and saw The Rosetta Stone, The Elgin Marbles, and two rooms full of Egyptian mummies, amongst other things. We were somewhat overwhelmed by the 13+ million pieces at the British Museum (thanks wiki) and only really managed some highlights. Seeing stuff that you have only ever read about in books is cool.

Then we went to The Princess Louise pub around the corner for a drink. It was the weirdest pub full of ornate pressed tin ceilings, Victorian tiling all over the walls, and the whole thing was divided cubicles. Each one had a few tables, and could fit about 10 to 20 people, and had a bit of the circular bar of its own (think spokes of a wheel). It was weird, we played Hive (thanks Will), Charles won. It was good, and all suitably British.

Days like this, that’s why I love London.

New Zealand Student of the Year – That’s me!

My cell phone rang at 6am this morning. After firstly thinking it was my alarm, I then had a mild panic where I thought something bad had happened to someone back home.

But no.

Instead it appears that I am Regional Student of the Year (New Zealand) for the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance. After research it seems that I have achieved this by getting the highest average marks out of the 10 different courses that the institute ran in NZ in 2007.

Now, I wonder if I can convince my new work to fly me back to NZ for the awards ceremony later this year? After all it worked at my last job!

Of course, it could have been all a dream…

Long time no post

I have been accused of blogging slackness, and I have to say they are right. Real life has somehow intruded on my ability to blog, but on the whole I think that excuse isn’t too bad.

So, as some of you may know Charles and I went back to NZ. It was a very rushed trip under not the happiest circumstances so I apologise to those of you we didn’t catch up with. Next time I promise, although since we have been back to NZ three times in the last eight months I don’t think that will be any time soon. On the plus side, thanks to air points we now have enough for a free trip UK to NZ and back. So when we do go next it will be free, free, free.

In other news I now have a new job. My old job wasn’t too shabby, but didn’t keep me challenged. One of the recruitment companies that I had signed up with when I was looking for my first job got in touch with me and offered me an interview for a Team Leader position, so I thought “Why not?” End result is I thought they were great, and they obviously thought I was pretty good too. After negotiating my contract I told my old work who… offered me a new position, a pay rise, and a guaranteed pretty big bonus. I then had a pretty stressful day while I had to think about what I really wanted, and also go back to the new company and see if they would up their offer. They did, so I left, as the new company and position was more what I was after. So I am now Aviation Team Leader at Allianz. At this point I know very little about Aviation Insurance, but it isn’t really much different from other insurance really, apart from the premiums being bigger, and the claims being bigger, and the fact that if you have a claim it is usually because an aircraft has crashed somewhere, which is not really much fun. On the up side (of which there are many) the company is really great, my team is really great (and there are only five of them!), my manager is lovely, and I get to work in The Gherkin which is a pretty iconic London building. The top floor is also a employees and their guests only bar with a 360 degree view of London. I think I am going to be in demand for drinks over the next few weeks, and I suspect that it is not for my sparkling personality…

Charles and I went to Dublin for Easter weekend. Dublin was pretty cool, both in the pretty awesome sense of the word, and in the brr, it’s really cold sense. Looking at the Post Office where the Easter Rising took place, where you can still see the bullet marks on the columns was quite eye opening. Charles had a great time at the Guinness factory on their five floor tour. Really, all you ever wanted to know about Guinness and more. He discovered amongst other things that there are actually three different types. Who would have thought? I certainly didn’t. Charles got to pour his own pint, and get a certificate. All and all a good trip.

In other good news we have stolen a Mog off Wellington, and at the beginning of April we are getting a Bishy. We also have a Vicki and a Simon, although they are only on loan. As I have always said, London is the new Wellington. Come one come all. You know you want to. Go on….

Prague, and some stuff since.

So Charles and I went to Prague and met up with Will. It was really cool, great to see Will again, and a fun few days. I won’t really say much about it as Will has done far better here than I could have done.  As a result of the trip Charles wants bouncy feet and may get a pair for his birthday. If he will promise to actually use them, and also not to kill himself that is.

Charles has also started his new job, which is good and interesting, and even more importantly pays him. We are now back in the wonderful world of having two incomes (it has been a looong time) so are looking forward to being able to plan trips away. Only trouble is deciding where to go as there are just so many choices.  So it looks like we might be going to Munich early November (there is a concert there that Charles wants to see) and then somewhere nice for Charles’ birthday at the end of November. Can’t decide if we should somewhere out of England like Paris, which is still nice and close, but a whole different country, or see a bit more of this country as we have seen, err, London, and Surrey, and I have been to Bristol. Not really enough.

In other news this really is a great city for events, if you can remember they are on. Charles and I have had to start a calendar after buying tickets to see two of our favourite authors (Neil Gaiman and Susanna Clarke) in conversation, and then… forgetting about it until two days afterwards. Ooops! Luckily we had also booked tickets to see Neil Gaiman the week afterwards so all was not lost. We went to see him talk with all the other geek fans, we sat behind his wife and his two daughters which was cool as we got to see their reactions to his talk. We lined up for an hour to get books signed (a queue?? In London???), we had our 2 minutes of fame, and got our photo taken with Neil (to be posted later). He kindly signed and drew in our books (”Mind the gap” in Neverwhere – ha), and we left very happy campers. Quite different from seeing William Gibson who didn’t even look at you when he signed your book. Neil took the time to chat with everyone, which meant that you didn’t even mind standing in a queue for that long. Not even in the rain. On the way out of the bookshop I noticed that the next night Bill Clinton was coming to do a talk and signing about his new book.  Kinda interesting but in my mind Neil Gaiman was way cooler. Neil also didn’t need 15 bodyguards to accompany him unlike some ex presidents.

In November we are going to see The Cat Empire who really rock. Also booked tickets for The Cure next year. Old school is cool. Forgot to book tickets for Crowded House. Grr. Will have to see what Ebay or Gumtree have to offer. Of course, I am not doing nearly as well as Charles who has 4 things booked to see this week alone. One of them is a recording of a storm. Hmm.

Apart from that things are ticking along here. It now feels pretty much time home. It is also getting colder, but since the central heating in this country rocks I think I should survive winter pretty well.

And that folks, is all for now.

To NZ and back again

So a couple of weeks ago I went to NZ for a few days. Kinda unexpected, and extremely exhausting, but fun as well.

Last year when I was studying for my diploma in insurance I got top in one of my papers. Not that much of a big deal really, they sent me a certificate and a cheque, and that I thought was the end of it. A couple of months ago the institute I was studying through sent me an invite to their awards ceremony in Auckland. I ignored it, being in London, but about a month ago I got an email from the organiser directly. She asked if I was able to make the ceremony and said how much they would like to have me there as I was getting an award, but as I lived in Christchurch and it was a long way to go to Auckland she would understand if I couldn’t make it.

As I was at work when I read the email I jokingly asked one of the managers if they wanted to fly me out to Auckland to attend the ceremony. I pointed out that it was an underwriting award, and I am an underwriter, and that it was for an Australian based institute, and they are an Australian based company. To my complete surprise he said that they would consider it as it would be good publicity for them, and after checking with the CEO said that yes, they would contribute.

So, on Friday the 7th of September I flew out of London and arrived in Christchurch on Sunday. I then met up with Charles, his father and Lydia and caught up with them, and then Charles and I rented a car and drove down to Timaru to see my parents and Guy, Rach and Isaac who had gone down for the day. It was fantastic being able to catch up with the family, and quite surreal as I hadn’t been expecting to see them until Christmas. We spend a happy night in Timaru, and then on Monday drove back up to Christchurch and spent the evening with Guy and Rach. On Tuesday I had a meeting at Crombie Lockwood, a broking company that has the same parent company as the one I work for in London, and then Charles and I zipped around the city trying to fit in as much Christchurch stuff as possible, had a lovely lunch with Leslie at the winery that we got engaged at, and then dropped into see my ex workmates at Tower. It was lovely to see them all, although some of them were pretty confused and thought that I hadn’t got around to leaving NZ yet. We then went back to Leslie’s place, cooked dinner, and then the next day flew to Auckland for the awards dinner.

Auckland was fun. The hotel we were staying in was the same one that I used to stay at for work when I worked at Tower so felt very familiar. After a wander around and a bit of a sleep we set off for the dinner, Charles with camera at the ready as I had promised to take photos for my work as a thank you for sending me over there. The awards dinner was very nice. The organisers and the other people there were all very impressed by the fact that my company sent me over for it, and I got to meet some nice people from other companies. All contacts that would have been slightly more useful if I was still working in NZ and after a job there, but good all the same. The food was nice, the drinks were flowing, and the whole dinner was fun, especially once I had got my award and could relax a little.

The next morning I was up early, and after another meeting with the Auckland office of Crombie Lockwood Charles and I were back to the airport to do the long haul back to London.

So apologies to everyone who I didn’t see while I was in NZ, which is everyone apart from my family. I would have loved to have caught up, but I just ran out of time. Charles and I are coming back for a month over Christmas so we will have plenty of time then to catch up with everyone. I am also glad that it will not be such a quick trip this time, as although I managed the trip over there ok, going back the other way only a few days later was a killer. I still feel like I am suffering from the after effects of it, although that could have something to do with the fact that last weekend we went to Prague to meet up with Will. But that is another blog, and I will leave it until tomorrow. 

Moving house & the last 3 weeks

I am currently packing as I am moving from Wimbledon to my new and more permanent home in Putney. I have to say that packing for moving here is much much easier than it was packing up an entire house in Christchurch! Although I do seem to have significantly more stuff than when we moved in…

I am really looking forward to the new flat. We are moving in with Selena who is a friend of Caro’s and really nice. The flat is awesome, in an apartment block and has the largest living spaces I have seen in a place in London. Bring on the dinner parties, that’s what I say. The place we are in currently doesn’t even have a lounge, so it is going to be quite different! So, we may not have a spare room to put people up in, but we do have a lounge now, so as long as you don’t mind an airbed you are all welcome to stay! 

The last few weeks have been interesting. Charles has been in Christchurch seeing his father, so I have been here by myself. I have of course been missing Charles heaps, and have been spending lots of money on late night (his early morning) phone calls back to NZ. At the same time though, I have been suprised at how quickly the time has gone.

I am trying to think what I have done since he left… I went to see a musical called Blood Brothers with Si and Des (who have been looking after me really well with Charles gone). That was kinda cool, although it was a good thing that Charles wasn’t there as it was very much a musical. We had dinner before hand in a cool little Italian restaurant, although I have never seen so many tables squashed into one space – when I sat down the people at the table behind me actually could not have got up from their chairs!

Other outings… Went to a New Zealand, Australian and South African evening at the racecourse near my work for a work function. That was fun, although I was the only female there from work. Didn’t bet on any races as I had not idea about the horses, and it seems like a huge waste of money! Did get to see a haka and have hungi for dinner whcih was nice. Haven’t had a hungi in a long time.

Last weekend was a long weekend as we had a Bank holiday on Monday. Saturday I spent out at Kingston in Surrey which is  only a few train stops away and has heaps of shops. They have a farmers market and live music on the weekends, and as it was a lovely sunny day I spend a very enjoyable day wandering around, trying not to buy stuff and generally enjoying the sun.

Sunday night I went over to Dan and Alex’s place for a BBQ.  Alex has done heaps of work doing up her house which is beautiful, and made me wi and I was even more impressed when I saw they even have a garden. Gardens are pretty hard to come by out here, so it was especially nice to sit outside, drink excessive amounts of New Zealand wine, and enjoy the BBQ. I do feel sorry for the neighbours as they would have had to listen to us (me!) cackling away all evening.

Monday I caught up with Si and Des who were just back from Ireland, and we had lunch at an Italian place in Putney. We were going to go to the Notting Hill Carnival after that, but we didn’t quite have the energy, so we went into the city instead and wandered around Carnaby Street. We had a snack at the NZ cafe there which was very cool, and Si bought more pairs of shoes than either Des or I did (a miracle!).

Then Tuesday night I managed to get tickets to see William Gibson talk, so Amon, Adrian (friend’s of Charles) and I went along and gazed in awe and got copies of his latest book signed. It was really quiet interesting listening to him as he wasn’t at all what I expected. Pretty laid back, and not really into technology in a big way. In fact he told us that one of the main part of the plot of his latest book is about GPS and it wasn’t until it was about to go into print that he found out that GPS doesn’t work inside buildings. He then had to rewrite crucial parts of the book…  I also got tickets for Charles and I to see Neil Gaiman and Susanna Clarke in conversation later on in September which we are both really looking forward to. Neil Gaiman is one of our favourite authors, and Susanna Clarke is pretty cool as well.

Last night I went around to Si and Des’ and we watched the final of Big Brother. Or rather, Des watched the final of Big Brother and Si and I sat around and made snide remarks. Poor Des, having to put up with us.. Today has been spent packing, and reading, and laptopping, and then tomorrow Si and Des are kindly going to help me move. I will then return the favour next weekend when they move into their new place.

So that is about it for the moment. The only other big bit of news is that Charles and I are coming back to NZ for Christmas. We arrive at 10am on Christmas Eve, and then are around until 22nd Jan, so we will have plently of time to catch up with everyone. Anyone with exciting plans for New Years – let us know!

Facebook and fairies

So listen up all you Christchurch people who are still in Christchurch (are there any left?) Charles is coming back for a month if you would like to catch up with him. Sadly his father is ill, so he has decided to go home and spend some time with his Dad, since he conveniently doesn’t have a job over here yet. He will have his old cellphone number active from when he arrives on Monday, so give him a call if you want to catch up.

So, I get to spend the next month over here holding down the fort and pretending to be a single gal (although not too hard). I was also going to have to look for a place to live while Charles was gone, as we are only in this place until 6th of September, but lucky for me Facebook came to the rescue!

Charles has been hassling me that Facebook has no use, and saying that it is a waste of time, but he has been proved wrong. A couple of days ago I updated my status to say that I was looking for a flat. Shortly after that I got a facebook message from Selena (a friend of Caro) saying that her flatmates were moving out of her place in Putney, and would we be interested in the room. Tonight we went over there, got shown around her awesome flat which is close to the tube, train, and also huge, and as easily as that we have a new home. Yay!

In other news, since Charles is leaving me for a month, last night we decided to go and do something a little special. We had been hoping to go and see Shakespeare at The Globe this week, but timing meant we couldn’t make it. Instead I got on the trusty net and checked out other Shakespeare productions going on in the city. I decided A Midsummer Night’s Dream would be fitting, and out of the 15 different versions on offer picked one on at Kensington Palace Gardens, in the Orangery. So we hopped on a tube, and half an hour later we were enjoying pasta salad, chocolate cake and Pimms in the late evening sun. The production, which was put on by the Oxford Shakespeare Company was great. Some of the performers had circus backgrounds so the fairies were acrobats suspended in silks, the actors broke into four part harmonies, and there were orchestral interludes, not to mention some very amusing acting, pratfalls and fake fights. The audience were in hysterics for most of the second half, and we went away fully reminded of just why we are over here.

Today was also the last day for the guy I am replacing at work, so we were off to the pub for lunch (of course) and then for a quick cider out in the sun after work. Tomorrow I am a fully fledged underwriter. Yay me.

The realities of living in London

I have to say that so far the realities are actually fairly good. There are always some down sides to wherever you are living, but over the last week or so as I have actually settled into life here I have decided that I am pretty content.

The new job is pretty much good. The working pace is far more relaxed in the UK than it was in NZ. The pace of things at my new job is definately far far more relaxed than at the last insurance company I worked at. Of course, that is no bad thing, as other insurance company pace was insane, and the staff all kept on going on stress leave. All the same though, at this job I keep on being suprised when people say how busy it is. The work is also easier than at my previous ins job. Although, of course, I still have a lot to learn as the way they do things over here is somewhat different.

New workmates are also good. I think we are getting on fine. I am hassling them as much as they are hassling me & everyone else on the floor, so I take that to be a good sign. I went to the pub for lunch three times last week. That was also nice, although I am hoping that pub lunches are not so much of a regular thing in the future. I am working with pretty much all boys, but I am fine with that. They are all being pretty nice to me, and answering all my many many questions.

Having to get my National Insurance (IRD number) number today was one of the bad realities of living here. I just don’t understand why they have to make things like this so difficult. First I had to ring up and get an appointment. I managed to get one inside of a week which was amazingly quick as it usually takes 6 weeks. Then I had to get relevant documents together to prove that I was in fact me, and that I had the right to work in the UK. I thought the UK passport gave me that right, but obviously I was wrong. Then today I had to travel for 1.5 hours to get to the appointment at the dole office. I then had to wait 45 minutes past my appointment time in order to be seen for 10 minutes and have a woman fill out a form in from of me which I then had to sign. She then said that she had to get the photocopies of my documents cosigned and then made me wait another 45 minutes to get this process done. Me, I didn’t see how it could take that long. After that I travelled for 2 more hours to get to work, and finally got there at 3:45pm in time to work for 2 hours before going home. Of course, things at the dole office may have been somewhat quicker if 7 of the staff had not taken turns to try to put a file drawer back into the cabinet. A process which took them the entire 45 minutes that me and the other 20 people were waiting for them to cosign my documents. Finally to our relief a guy with a screwdriver came along and fixed the drawer, and all 21 customers got to go home. Go the staff at the Houndslow Job Centre Plus.

Other good things about London – concerts, shows and events. I had a look on a ticket website the other day and got pretty excited and the number of things that I wanted to go to. So far I have booked tickets to The Cat Empire in November (one of my favourite bands), arranged to see The Globe Travelling Players perform Romeo and Juliet in the park near my work on Friday night, arranged to see The Merchant of Venice with Charles, Si and Des and The Globe actual in the next few weeks, arranged to see Crowded House with Charles, Si and Des in December, and organised to go to the Real Ale Beer Fest on Saturday afternoon with Charles, Dan and Alex. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Yay, I have a job!

From Monday I am a Non-Motor Underwriter for OAMPS Insurance Brokers who are a large Australian owned broking firm. They insure everything from Fish n Chip shops, to Buddhist Temples, to Oil Rigs, so it should be interesting.

I have to say that working conditions over here are way better than NZ. As well as the usual getting paid thing, I get a pension plan, medical, life and income protection insurance, 5 weeks annual leave as standard, unlimited sick leave, and I only have to work 35 hours a week. Oh, and they also pay a 30% to 50% bonus each year. Woot. The other really good thing about this job is that I don’t have to commute into the city each day which is something I was not looking forward to. The office is actually on my train line two stops out, and only takes me 12 minutes, plus a 10 minute walk at the other end. That makes my travel time less than in Christchurch, and is better than having to get the tube at rush hour, and taking over an hour to get to the financial district in London.

There is also the advantage (or disadvantage) that which there are a few shops in Esher (where I am working) there are not really any that I will be tempted into spending too much money in during my lunch hour. The city could have been a little lethal in that respect.

In other news I went to see Monty Python’s Spamalot in the West End last night with Charles, Si, Des, Dan & Alex. It was very funny, and very professional. Highlights included the French knights, and the spontaneous outbust of singing along to “Always look on the bright side of life” from the audience. Charles really enjoyed himself as well, which was great since he usually doesn’t like musicals, and we kinda had to drag him along. Big ups to Des for going in earlier in the day and getting us bargin tickets which were then upgraded to better seats once we got there. I think I will be going to many more shows.