What has been happening over the last month! Lots!
Caleb
He started at his real job. He is working on a 30 million pound house in Chelsea, which is getting a refit. Theres nothing wrong with it, but the person who has the lease for the next 10 years has decided to spend a whole lot of money on it. So he is working there, mostly with Kiwis's and Ozzies and a couple of poms and polish thrown in for good measure. He is working very very hard as he really wants this job and there is a lot of competition out there for jobs.
But he is learning lots, working pretty normal hours and it means we can start saving....although that has yet to begin, so many places to see and things to do!
Maree
My work is still as crazy as ever, some of you may have heard my exciting? story about being trapped down on the gypsy site because some of the men started a fight while we were there, and it blocked the one entrance/exit to the site. I had to call the police, and we havent been allowed down there since because they are doing a risk assessment to see if we should be allowed back there yet. Im happy to return, the fight was in no way directed at me, but my managers etc have to be sure that we aren't at risk going back there, especially because i called the cops, which makes me not very popular in such a closed society.
I spent the most awesome night in Nth Ireland with Julz and Erin. I literally flew into the airport, and got picked up...and we started talking. We talked from like 9am to 11pm, then i got up in the mornign and attended Erin's church. We also hung out with Erin's parents and then flew home. We talked so much, and laughed so much, but had the best time. We had 6 years to catch up on.
Then on Friday night Caleb finally got to meet Julie. I have known her for 8 years, and Caleb had not met these Irish girls who i always talk about. She was in London with her husband, so we met up for dinner, which was brilliant. Although i was sure they would get on, its always a bit scary to introduce two people you care about and hope they get on....but no worries, and i also got to meet her husband who is lovely too. We are hoping to plan a trip to England's best theme park soon, which would be amazing...i love roller coasters!
Together
We had a BRILLIANT time last weekend in Cardiff. We went with a bus load of other Kiwis to watch the Wales vs AB's game. Its only like a 3-4hr drive from London and Cardiff had the most amazing atmosphere. There were red jersey's everywhere, they closed the main street to traffic and it was just a massive party. Millenium stadium is literally one street over from the main street, which provides the perfect setting for before and after celebrations.
The stadium itself is incredible, and because they shut the roof, its awesome to see rugby unaffected by the elements. Hearing the welsh crowd sing bread of heaven etc was amazing too. After the fight we went to watch the boxing match which was touted here as David vs Goliath, with David Hayes and that massive Russian dude. We met some really lovely Welsh people in the pub, who were so welcoming etc.
The next morning we got up early and went for a walk around post rugby Cardiff. The morning was remembrance Sunday and the area was so quiet and serene compared to the night before. We wandered through the grounds of a park that used to belong to Cardiff Castle and the autumn colours were in full flight. It was a lovely morning. We were walking past the Hilton on the way back which were where the All Blacks were staying, Caleb saw Steven Donald and they had a chat. The All Blacks were flying to Milan that morning. We had also managed to see John Afoa the day before, because as we were walking through Cardiff, suddenly there were the All blacks reserves right in front of us, so that was fun to see them.
Anyway we loved that weekend was amazing.
Yesterday we hired a car and drove to Bath to see Simon and Lisa, who are out here for just over a week. We met their wee baby Joseph too which was great. However the day was absoloutely miserable, completely wet and windy and consequently we were confined to sitting indoors as much as possible. However we really enjoyed catching up with them, and Caleb and I still managed to go and see the Roman Baths and had a wee drive around Bath so got to see how cute it all is. Then we drove to Bristol to the house they are staying at and hung out in the warm house, round the gorgeous fire before driving back to London.
It was sooo good to see them, a little taste of home.
I don't think we are planning to do too much more travelling before our time away in Paris over Christmas, maybe we will, but its not in the pipelines at the moment. As much as we love it, we end up being very very tired the next week for work, and we both need to be on top of our games at work.
We have found a church...its downtown, cos all the local ones are rather dead. My second cousin goes there, and its full of young adults our age. There are about 500 people that go there and its held in the Picadilly Theatre which is showing the grease musical at the moment, funny huh. But we feel really welcome there, so we are keen to keep going.
Anyway i hope that fills you in a bit....oh yeah we also got ourselves a bed..yeah!, but we are having issues because its sooo squeaky, everytime you move even a tiny bit it gets its squeak on, so much so that it wakes us up in the night time. Anyway it is Calebs challenge to fix it for me.
Getting kinda chilly, although still manageable. Not looking forward to winter!
Sorry we are slack at writing, will try and be a bit better.
Love lots
Maree and Caleb
