In Bruges

November 2015 

It was back to Belgium for our latest overseas adventure.

We needed to get back and see Flanders Fields, and properly see Bruges given our last trip to the city so short. Our trip was also  made more affordable with some help from Eurostar - the compensation from a 73 minute delay on our last trip to Belgium in August knocked off half of the ticket price!

We had a bit of trepidation leading up to the trip - the Paris attacks happened two weeks beforehand, with the pursuit/manhunt in Brussels locking down the city and raising the terror alert across the whole country, up to just a few days before we arrived. We got in to Brussels Midi on the Saturday to see a big police presence - about 10 cars outside one entrance, and groups of officers with assault rifles patrolling the station.

But everything still felt safe, and after transferring trains arrived in Bruges an hour later without any hassles. 

Duke Fluffington and The Last of the Summer Wine-d Up

September-October 2015 

WE HAVE A HAMSTER! Introducing, Duke Fluffington!

Amsterdam

September 2015 

Another great trip.

We flew out of Southend Airport, which felt like a provincial New Zealand airport rather than an international London airport. We touched down around 9pm and caught the train in to the city. Our accommodation was pretty impressive - a full, modern apartment to ourselves - booked again through AirBnB.

Our hosts had left stroopwaffels for us but we thought we'd need something a bit more substantial - so we ventured out in the pouring rain. On the way we actually saw a cyclist being hit by a car at some speed - luckily the cyclist was ok but his bike looked to have bit of a dent in it. The only food place open at 11pm was a kebab-type establishment - but our late night pizzas were surprisingly good.

The next day, after a 15 minute walk to the central city we started our walking tour at 10am. It was a good and informative tour, but not quite as good as the one in Brussels.

The best beer in the world

September 2015 

This is the story of how I drank a bottle of the best beer in the world.

While in Brussels, a country famed for its beer, I thought it might be a good idea to get what has been acknowledged as the best beer in the world.

Westvleteren 12 - a beer brewed by Trappist monks, in small batches and with all of its profits going to charitable causes. It's only sold at the Westvleteren monastery/brewery itself in the Belgian countryside and in a tiny number of bottle stores elsewhere. After seeing how highly rated it was, I knew I needed to get some of this stuff.

Beer, frites, chocolate and waffles

August 2015 

Bonjour from Brussels!

Yonks ago when we first arrived I was determined that we booked some travel. I didn’t really care where, just somewhere. And so, having clicked our way through Skyscanner, we settled on Brussels and Amsterdam.

When we each told our workmates where we were going we were typically met with a quizzical look and asked ‘why?’ For some reason the British don’t really see it as a holiday destination.

August Adventures

August 2015 

I thought it was probably about time I did a post. So here's an idea of what we got up to in August, in no particular order...

I had a bit of spare time this month - after a few frantic weeks my job search finally ended with an offer on the first Monday in August but I wasn't due to start until the 20th. So I had a bit of stress-free time to explore a bit of London on a budget (see below). I also caught up on some some movies (like Locke, an intriguing movie revolving around the phone calls a man makes as he drives along the motorway) and books (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was a great read, The Girl Who Wasn't There was one of the worst I've read).

Parliament Hill - tucked away in Hampstead Heath, this has some of the best views over the city. The view of St Paul's Cathedral is actually protected by law (by the way, that cloud was pretty standard 'summer' weather for August). 

Brace your arteries...

July-August 2015 

Hi all, Rach here. I love food, it makes me incredibly happy. So say hello to another food post! The best type of post. ;-)

Doughnuts...

We walked three hours from our house for doughnuts. Worth it! They were very good, but I have to admit that the jam and cream doughnuts at 'Little & Friday' in Auckland are just as good, if not slightly better... I traveled from Wellington on three occasions just to get them (on the premise of work, who kindly paid for my flights). I'm picking up on a theme here....

Interesting facts about Kensal Green

July 2015 

We're really enjoying living in Kensal Green. So much so, I thought it might be interesting to get together some "facts" about the area - beginning with the name.

Summer Ramblings

June-July 2015 

Hi!

Me here. And there's so much to tell you!

I'm going to bullet point because I'm feeling officious...

1) Family In Town

We hung out with cousin Simon :-D After his massive trip across the States and en route to his Contiki trip we got to see Simon for a couple of hours. We had a lot of laughs, it was great to see him!

Barbeque, bolus, Brighton, bikes and screaming foxes

June 2015 

It's been quite a week.

Barbeque

It kicked off with our neighbour Davide knocking on our door on Saturday morning inviting us to a barbecue that afternoon. He lives with his girlfriend Flora just behind our little flat and it's far bigger than our place, with its own small backyard. It turned out to be an great afternoon - good food,  the weather played nice, and we met some of their friends, ranging from other Europeans living in London to some born and bred Brits. 

One month down the track

May 2015 

Oh hi there!

How goes it? I thought I should do a wee update of all the recent happenings.

Where to start...

New digs

We have a place to live! A cute little one-bedroom flat in Kensal Green. Living by ourselves is amazing. There isn't a single arse-monkey to mess anything up! It's got an itty-bitty bathroom, three radiators and a little kitchen/lounge. And enough room for an air bed which is what I really wanted. Robert Saunders was our first guest! Our friend from Whangarei who is going to move to England in a few months time (probably). He spent the entire night on Wednesday shooting in London. He's a very good photographer, but he's a little bit mad. We love him all the same.

Here's a photo of Robert's. Like I said, he's an amazing photographer.

Raclette

May 2015 

Food. Undoubtedly one of my favourite things. Therefore, it only seems logical that I assume responsibility for blogging about all the amazing, delicious, life-changing food things that we encounter and devour. It's a big responsibility and not one I take lightly, but I shall bear it. For the good of... me, mostly. Where better to start than the humble spud. 

A few weeks ago Mike and I ventured to the Borough Markets, where we'd visited back in 2013 for a spot of lunch. I would like to introduce you, to 'Raclette!'

First, let's take a giant half wheel of cheese and put it under the grill till it's nice and melty and golden...

A week in London

April-May 2015

Well, we're finally here.

After several months of planning and build up, we finally arrived in London a week ago - and what a week it's been.

After touching down Gatwick, getting Oyster cards and SIM cards, we lugged our, er, luggage along on the Tube and through the streets, and finally made it to Bex's place in West Hampstead. It's been a handy base for the week.

Right up to when we got off the plane, it hadn't sunk in that were moving to the other side of the world. Somehow it felt like we were going on holiday and would be back at work in Wellington in a few weeks. Not anymore - living out of a suitcase for weeks and the reality of finding work and a flat have changed that.

It's taken a while to adjust to the time difference, but after a few 3:30am starts I think we're mostly there.

The biggies - jobs, flats and bank account

We're finding the job market here quite different to back home. For starters, everyone seems to advertise and find jobs through recruitment agencies. I can see how they're helpful (more on that soon) but our short experience so far has been a bit mixed.

I've registered with a couple and they haven't contacted me back (after several days). Rach registered with one and had to go through a rigorous 2.5 hour registration, interview and testing process. The others she registered with so far haven't contacted her either. 

So, on helpful agents: I've been lucky enough to land a temp job - 3 weeks doing data entry and scheduling (but in reality I don't know what the job entails) - through one agent, starting Tuesday. My registration process was a piece of cake compared to Rach's - a 3 minute interview followed by basic spelling, Word, and typing tests done and dusted in under an hour. They were taking me on for general admin roles (as opposed to Rach's which was for HR specifically) which might explain the difference. Obviously it's not the ideal job for me, but it's a foot in the door, and it'll be good to have some income. Hopefully I can be properly registered soon with agencies that can get me more permanent and relevant work. Rach was put forward for what would have been a great job, but her CV was apparently "too senior".

Flats are less strange, and more straightforward. After a fair bit of Gumtree browsing and calling around, we did some flat viewings all over the city. We've now landed a nice little one bedroom flat in Kensal Green. The paperwork should be finalised in a few days' time.

And lastly, the bank account - our appointment was to be Thursday morning but the bank manager's wife apparently went into labour so it's now been postponed to next Thursday. Fair enough - that's a pretty solid reason to have it postponed - but it's still a bit of a pain for us.

The more fun stuff - exploring London and Britbound

We've spent a fair bit of time out and about the city, getting good use out of our monthly Oyster tickets. 

We did the really big attractions back in 2013 so we've mostly visited the areas we missed last time. They've generally been the lower key areas, and where we've looked at flats - around Liverpool Street, near the British Museum, West Hampstead, Clapham, Kensal Green, Rotherhithe, Notting Hill, Hyde Park, Covent Garden, Holborn, Little Venice... 

Outside the British Museum. 

A very patient and calm dog at the Canalway Cavalcade festival. 

A monument outside somebody's house.

We also had our Britbound arrival session a few days after we landed. They're a good bunch of people, extremely helpful and welcoming and full of information. We also hadn't realised exactly what they do - we thought once they set you up you were on your own. But no - they seem to have built up a good community of Britbounders (mostly Kiwis, Aussies and Canadians) over here. They've also got a year round events calendar which we'll be hoping to take advantage of. 

So we're starting to feel more comfortable. Those first few days are quite daunting, but things are slowly starting to click into place. We're definitely not there yet, but it's starting to move in the right direction. 

How very British. 

Goodbyes - Part 2

April 2015 

Hi, Rach here. I figured it's about time that I say a little something. Here goes!

We're sitting in Dubai Airport at the moment. It's massive and fairly grand. We've completed the longest stretch of our journey, 14 odd hours from Brisbane. Our next flight should take approx 7 hours to Gatwick. We're really on our way now!

We had a lovely time in Brisbane catching up with Chris and Nicole and Korah, and we met Nova for the first time. Unfortunately both the girls were sick so they weren't themselves. While we were there we caught the train to the Goldie and hung out with Stace and Blair and Rhi which was very cool! We were both very mindful of making the most of the sunshine over there seeing as we might not get a lot of it for a while. 

Goodbyes - Part 1

April 2015 

It feels pretty strange right now.

We're unemployed and with no fixed abode. Our life in Wellington is over for now. The grand and decrepit 66 Central Terrace, where Rach and I found and fell in love with each other, is only a memory now. No more Hamish the cat, no catching the cable car home, no sitting on the sun drenched patio admiring that view.

I'm not at the heart of criminal law policy and politics. Rach isn't working for the dolphin killer oil company.  We both had huge and emotional farewells from our jobs, did our final flat clean up (a mammoth task carried out gradually over the course of a few weeks) and flew out of Wellington on Saturday 11 April to the Bay of Plenty.

We've even had our flat bond refunded in full (netting me a $5 win from a bet with Rach) so the formal Wellington ties have been severed. The life we had built in the capital has ended - for now at least.

We're now in a strange state of limbo - Wellington is over but London hasn't started - in a mix of excitement, trepidation, anxiety and sadness. We've had a few days' relaxation, catching up with family and wandering through the farm. And it's been a huge culinary week - saying hello and goodbye over many extravagant and delicious meals.

This afternoon we both said our goodbyes to our Te Puke family before hopping on a tiny little 20 seater from Tauranga to Auckland. Now our first few job applications have been fired off across the globe, and we're slowly working our way to London (via Whangarei and Brisbane). 

It's starting to feel more real.

Where, when and how

January 2015 

Since making the call, it's just been a matter of us working out a few crucial details – such as where, when and how.