James and the UK weather

there is crisis flooding in Oxford right now, but we live and work on a hill. Or rather, on an island.

James Becomes British

On the weekend, Liz and I went to Belgium. All i really had to do was leave the UK and come back in on my new British passport (so that i could get paid my pounds), but we figured that if we had to go to that much trouble, we may as well go somewhere we wanted for the two days.

We settled on Belgium because a) one of our workmates is from Belgium and she is cool and said the place was pretty cool, b) it takes less time to get from London to Bruxelles than Perth to Bridgetown, and c) because the Belgians make world class chocolate and beer.

We settled on Brugge because we heard it was cool and that Bruxelles was kinda crap...

sounds fair to me!

anyway, Liz booked a Eurostar train/accommodation package for us, which helped because i wasn't keen for too much fussing about details.

= Brugge has no ATMs. or at least, no visible ATMs (we did find three).
= We stayed on a hotel-converted-barge, which wasn't bad but was very funny. It was close to town and the train station.
= belgians are friendly (the ones who sold us things, perhaps not the graffiti writers). i asked for the best belgian beer that was cool and not marketed at girls (stella is a cheap local beer, nothing special).
= there was a Salvador Dali exhibition, but i couldn't be arsed paying to go in.

and best of all
Now i am electronically registered as being British, so EF can back-pay me 8 weeks worth of beautiful Pounds.
(special note: although my mac is british and has a "pounds" symbol over the 3-key, i configured my keyboard to Australian Standard and can't work out where Mac's character map is to get one)

Harry Potter Month

Today the fifth Harry Potter film came out.
We have to wait til tomorrow to watch it, because Liz has the work Emergency Phone this week and can't turn it off in the cinemas.

However, we're haning out for the 20th for the midnight launch party in oxford for the last book.

PS. Sorry for the vulgar nature of this post.

A Photo History of Bron's Trip So Far

Okay people, I think I might finally be able to download some of my photos onto the blog. I've just selected some of the more interesting photos to give you a bit of an idea of what I've been up to since arriving in the UK...

My first trip to Oxford to visit James & Liz was full of tours around the beautiful colleges and gardens - and a visit to a random house with a shark nose-diving into the roof!

After about a week in London, Trev & Toots flew over on their way to the weddings up in Scotland. We decided a little shopping expedition was required. Given a lot of people don't have cars in London a lot of people have old granny shopping trolleys and Hayls had bought one that day, much to Toots' entertainment! She could not stop laughing, thinking her friends were turning into geriatrics!

We then headed up to Edinburgh for John & Andi's wedding and caught up with a few of the old EY crew...

After John & Andi's wedding I visited some of the family around Scotland. I'm sure most of the family will remember Rhona - well I went and stayed with her in Inverness and met her gorgeous bub Skye... what a cutie!

And finally we finished off with Billy & Jane's wedding in Aberdeen. This also included a night out in the Deen where Coops introduced us to haggis pizza - surprisingly it's nay bad!

Hayls and I also had a slightly disasterous trip to the hairdressers before the wedding. Basically Hayls' hair looked like a reinvention of one of her earlier ball hairdos nicknamed 'The Block', and I looked like I'd been channelling Farrah Fawcett back in the 70's. I'd done a fair bit of repair work by the time this picture was taken...

Well I hope that helped give you some idea of what's been happening over here. Unfortunately that'll be it for a while as both Hayley and I now have our heads down trying to find a job. Fingers crossed we get one soon!

Love to all, and keep the comments coming. Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEL!

Touring the Historic Sites with James

As i normally do when i am feeling masochistic, i voluntarily surrendered my sunday sleep-in to accompany 53 students to the historic locales of Bath and Stonehenge.

i pretty much thought this was to involve me a) counting students onto a bus, b) telling them to meet me back at this point and at this time or else they would be left behind, and c) listening to my ipod for the 3 hour return bus trip.

plus i was going to get to see some cool historic places (not just for free, but for free + £62 + lunch)

i knew that i was sadly deluded, however, when the bus driver handed me a road map and asked if i was any good with directions...

at this point i would like to say that Geraldine the bus driver was very nice, and - in her defence - was employed like many people currently working in Oxford because resources are very stretched in peak tourist times and the bus company needed more drivers.

The main issue was just that Geraldine wasn't from Oxford, and she had never been to Bath or Stonehenge before.

Ohh yeah!

But somehow, everyone involved had a great time!

highlights included:
• Going towards stonehenge first, because no one had notified the bus company that we were booked to tour the Roman Baths at 11am.
• Not having a proper street map of Bath, and guessing our way to the Coach Parking bay with the help of a tourist guide.
• waiting half an hour for four taiwanese girls who had gotten lost in Bath and didn't have mobile phones.
• randomly driving past said girls in another area of town, shortly after we had abandoned them to train back to oxford.
• making a wrong turn and driving down a narrowing, hilly road - and then reversing back up it.
• making another wrong turn, and reversing back past a man who Geraldine had leant on the horn at a minute before.
• taking the most roundabout, village-by-village route to stonehenge.
• the sheep in the paddock next to stonehenge.
• all the taiwanese girls wanting to have photos taken with me.

and the russian girls. and the one taiwanese guy.

James' Goodtimes!

I work in the Accomodation Office of EF International Language School's Oxford Branch. My title is "Accommodation Assistant" and i answer a lot of phone calls and other crap. I work with Jackie and Aisha. Aisha is black and has two young sons. I am gonna be their basketball trainer! We work from 8:30am to 5:30pm (read: 8:30am to 7:00pm or beyond. without extra pay). anyway, i make them cups of tea every couple of hours - a good excuse to go downstairs to the staffroom via reception -

- where Liz is Administration Manager. she was meant to be Accommodation Assistant but their Admin Manager went to Manchester. She deals with all the crap from the students, sales offices, student's parents, staff and much random shite. In reception there is Loes from Belgium, Patrik from Sweden, and Caterina from Calabria (where the Perth italians are all from).

with caterina, we live in a small 2 bedroom cottage adjacent to the school grounds. we have a nice kitchen (without tongs), a bathroom and the choise of three wireless internet networks...

every wednesday, Liz and i walk down to Cowley Road, where we eat at Nangdos (woo!) and then go to Tescos for our weekly shop.
every weekend, we usually will make it into central oxford, where we go into shoe shops.

We have seen 5 films at two different theatres - Pirates of the Carribbean III, Shrek II, Zodiac, Ocean's 13 at the Odeon; and at the Luna Paridiso's Oxford branch The Phoenix we saw American Beauty. I think that one's gonna win academy awards...
On DVD we have watched Zoolander, Usual Suspects, Saving Private Ryan, The Prestige, Starsky and Hutch, the Die Hard Trilogy... and Scrubs over and over.

Since the NBA draft (last week), i am now looking forward to HP5 and the book launch party on the eve of the 22nd.

Hmmmm.

thats enough blogging...

on one last note,
we also have Enigma brand toilet paper, which i created the gimmick - "enigma: what a ˆshitˆ name for toilet paper!

and another,
Patrik (from Sweden) absolutely loves my bottle-opening thongs bron got me for christmas last year. i have to send him some in Sweden...

Scotland

I've been holidaying around Scotland for a week and half now and loving it. Two of the guys I worked with back in Perth are getting married in Scotland two weeks apart, so I decided to stay up here between the two weddings and see a bit of the highlands.

After Johno's wedding last Saturday, I joined a 6-day Haggis Tour of the highlands. The tour came highly recommended by Elisha and she was absolutely right - I've never done a better tour (thanks Leesh!). As with most tours I seem to go on anywhere around the world, it was mostly Aussies with a couple of Canadians and Americans thrown in and a random Dutchman on this particular tour. But what a brilliant group of people. We all got along so well and had a great time exploring the highlands together. Even though Dad rattles on about beautiful Scotland constantly, I still had no idea it was so breathtaking. Every day consisted of bus rides through the rugged and remote bens, glens and lochs and every night consisted of finding the 'local' and having a few drinks.

I fell in love with the hairy coos and I actually got to meet a hairy coo called Hamish - I'm thinking he could be the perfect match for Morag! I've taken a picture for her to see if he takes her fancy! Personally I think he's gorgeous and I want one!

Despite it being the middle of summer over here, there wasn't one day of the tour that I went out without my ski jacket, scarf and umbrella!! Edinburgh isn't so cold but it has rained constantly every day I've been here.

Bron's Shopping Expedition

How not to shop in London...

Yesterday Hayley and I decided to go shopping for a few house things. There's a shop over here called Argos where you go and select what you want from catalogues, order them from the sales person and then they go and get your items from out the back. Everything's quite cheap so we thought we'd buy the things we needed from there.

Our shopping list consisted of a dvd player, a microwave, coathangers, a rubbish bin and a clothes horse. Hayls and I, being fairly typical Aussies, didn't even consider how we were going to get all this stuff home. We just happily ordered away and then started getting worried as more and more stuff started coming out from the back. Then we got the giggles realising just how much we had to carry between the two of us. The sales guy was looking at us like we were crazy! Needless to say, we needed a black cab just to get all our purchases and us home.

I think we can safely say we've learnt our lesson - never buy more than you can physically carry in London!

James' Keen Observation #2

Work is sucks where ever you are...

Bron

Well the hectic pace of life has continued. Hayley and I are now happily set up in our flat after getting the keys on Friday. Moving house with only the tube for transport isn't an experience I ever want to repeat! We have been good locals and stocked up on the pimms, lemonade, strawberries and cucumber for the traditional English alcoholic punch.

Toots and Trev have been in London over the weekend so we did the pom thing and had a curry and pint with them on Friday night, wandered around the Borough Markets on Saturday morning (an amazing food market) and then Toots and I did high tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace on Sunday afternoon.

The ex-E&Y crew living in London caught up for an afternoon at the pub yesterday so after high tea we joined them at a pub down on the Thames for a few drinks and a bit of Trev's singing. It was so good to catch up with everyone. Some that I haven't seen for years! I also picked up some good advice for job hunting from the seasoned professionals!

Thanks for all the news of home guys, keep the comments and emails coming.

xx

Bron's Update

Okay people, that's more than enough of James - it's my turn!!

It's hard to believe that Hayley and I have been in London for less than a week. It feels like at least a month and I feel surprisingly settled. It has been a crazy time.

We have managed to find a gorgeous little two-bedroom flat in Fulham after seeing some horrors. It is within walking distance of some great restaurants and bars and has a back courtyard for the odd bbq. What more could we need! The bad news is we can't move in until our funds transfer from Australia goes through and we're not quite sure how long that takes. But my trusty banking advisor (Jo) is on the case. What would I do without her!

Also, despite my best efforts to stay unemployed for a while longer, I have had recruiters phoning every 5 minutes with job opportunities and I have job interviews set up for the next few days.

In between flat hunting and fielding calls from recruiters I did manage a mini break in Oxford to visit James and Liz and escape the rat race in London. What a brilliant town! All the students are having their final exams at the moment and they actually have to sit their exams in their robes, bow-tie and tails. It makes it kind of easy to pick out the students from the tourists!

So I think that just about wraps up my 6 days in the UK! I will try and upload some photos when I get my own computer but in the meantime I will try and blog on a more frequent basis.

James' Keen Observation #1

coke cans (amongst other popular drinks) will rarely have english on them!



in England!

the one i drink from now is in Deutsch, and i had a Red Bull with what looked like Russian printed on the side of the can.

ahh the free-wheeling European Union!

note: Russia is not in the EU.

James in the fast lane

yep, i am now the proud owner of a smooth black macbook. (crowd cheers, claps fade after 10 mins).

however, at times i thought it may not be so.

**pardon the flaky prose, i've been reading a lot of so-called books by so-called authors (*cough* wankers) since i've been gone

first, i thought "i'll use my trusty credit card" and went to town.
in oxford they write with quills so they hadn't heard of laptops.
but an indian restaurant "curry's digital" showed promise. behind the covert shop front was an electrical goods store, with bollywood music. and one macbook on display.

but while krishna went out back to check for the box, he found a faster/better/blacker mac for only 60 quid more.

"great" chorused james and liz.

but alas, my transfer into my credit card to top it up needed more than 15 mins to clear.

krishna apologised and wrote a sign on the laptop's box "reserved".
liz and i met bron at the oxford traino to greet her...
and ask to borrow her credit facilities
she said "yes"

we wheeled her suitcase into curry's and hailed krishna. he brought back the box with a sign "reserved KRISHNA".
he thought it was a bargain.

so did we.

alas! when we got the laptop home, we faced two curious situations.
no power cable
and it was locked with curry digitals passwords

we returned, and his supervisors pissed themselves apologising. he was new.
but their shop was closing.

today, heroic sister bron returned to the shop where they formatted the computer to factory default, and packed in two power cables.

i came home to a brand new, working laptop!

i just worked til 5.45pm

i must stop writing.

love and peace

-james

james update

yo

last week i was a general maintenance assistant.

this week i am a receptionist / data enterer

that means i am also on a computer with the internet!

other news so far:

• watched Zodiac, 3 hour cinema experience #2. it was crap
• i have to go.

James after 1x Week in The UK

hey hey hey
yes, it has been a week since our qantas plane landed at heathrow and i cruised through immigration (without my uk passport).

therfore, as you can calculate, it has pretty much been a week without the internet...

so here we are.
things i have done so far

• slept lots, and drank very little tea...
• almost finished the harry potter series
• worked a week as a maintenance assistant, cleaning drains, checking boilers and shopping at Wembley IKEA
• assembling much, much IKEA furniture.
• purchasing (and wheeling down our small pot-holed country lane on a stolen IKEA trolley) a bar fridge for our room.

all in all

Very Cool.

peace (for about a week)

Go Lebron!

James says:

well, today is the day.

my british passport has yet to arrive, so my australian one will have to temporarily do.

damn inferior australian ones.

my 2g ipod travel playlist features a fair bit of beck, some kaiser chiefs and a whole lot of Bach, Beethoven and co.

I am convinced classical music is the way to go this trip.

anyway, there's not much else to say except that i am about to pack a bag full of damp clothes (that didn't dry on the washing line) and the last two Harry Potter books, ready for the launch in July.

stay tuned,
blog on!

James' Update

Days until departure
6

People who live in my sharehouse
6

Current volume of Harry Potter Book i am reading
5

...almost a bad omen, there. God save our gracious queen.

days until departure...
17

minimum working days to process british passport application...
10

conclusion...
i'm pushing it!

yeah!

Well folks, it's been a while between posts, however the MacNeils are due to travel again, so make sure you bookmark this site and stay tuned...

PS You can breathe a sigh of relief - we promise Donny's comments will be censored this time round!