LONDON

Grrrrooowwlllll!!! It's been said before: "Ryan, Like a Lion." indeed, but probably not a good look, unless you're mike myers in a velvet suit. Got a few laughs from onlookers though...

Last weekend we decided to hire a car and take a drive down to London to visit Daryl and Lorna, friends of ours that have just had a baby, and to explore a little. Unfortunately it was a bit of a fleeting visit. For all of you in London that we didn't see, we're here for a while and we promise to come and see you at some point.

We were impressed by London, it had a nice feel to it. A buzzing and colourful wee (or not so wee) place. We decided not to take the car into central London. Even with the GPS i think that's asking to get lost and run into trouble. So we left the car at Daryl and Lorna's and took the train into central town. Daryl had given us an idea of where places were and walking distances.

So we went to visit the queen's pad... Bit rough if you ask me, clearly it's a rough area of town as there are police type dudes around there with machine guns and stuff... Dunno why she doesn't move to a nicer area really... Hmmm. Buckingham palace was far from impressive really... i liked the louvre much better as far as cool looking palatial buildings go... perhaps it's nice inside?

The statue/fountain thing of Queen Victoria was more interesting than the palace to be honest. One side has the very regal Queeny, and man you would not want to meet her in a dark alley way - bit of a scowl on her face and not too pretty if you want my opinion, but the opposite side of the monument shows her in a very different light - an almost winsome look on her face, her royal breast out (for all the world to see) with a baby attached to it, and another child or two hanging off her. I guess two very different sides of the same woman - pretty obvious which i'd rather meet. Not because she had her breast sitting out in the open mind you...

The brits are clearly quite an aristocratic people - everywhere you look they've elevated people and set them in bronze. Quite endearing in one sense and grotesque in another. I guess it gives you something to aim for if you're a pleb like me. If you dig that kind of life?!

The other thing that i guess struck me about the monarchy was the terrific burden it must be to be born into such a family. I guess i'd rather have it the american way - if you want the top job you can work your way up to it, as opposed to the british being born into it - i can imagine it'd be a bit stifling. I for one generally start to squirm when it comes to things that one 'should' do. I guess I consider it worthwhile, even commendable to challenge the 'should do's' in life. Anyhow, it's likely my view of the culture of the monarchy is seriously limited. But those are my observations anyway.

So walking then - from the Millennium Eye to Big Ben to Westminster Abbey, through St James park to Buckingham Palace. Via Pall Mall to Regent St (fortunately i did not go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200) to Picadilly Circus... to Leicester Square and on to Convent Gardens (where we missed the street performers, twice!) and then kept going all the way to St Pauls Cathedral (which is huge - inside and out - much bigger than both the notre dame and the sacre coeur), and then to the Tower of London, The tower bridge and then back again towards the milennium eye.

We spent a couple of hours at the Tower of London which was fascinating. Read an interesting thing on torture. Apparrently only the worst of criminals were tortured at the tower and only between 1600 and 1700ish. The crimes? well apart from old guy fawkes who was a bit of a twat from all accounts, the rest of them were all Catholic priests!! Sheesh the price of a bit of theology eh? Which made me think it would be kinda cool to sit down and discuss theology with the queen - would probably have some interesting opinions i bet on God, and the nature of what it means to be christian... heady! Can't say for sure that i'd take torture to protect my Catholic faith against Anglicanism... doesn't strike me there's a heaven VS hell difference there... though it's obviously a bit interesting that either party would torture really!
All i can say is, i'm glad its not the year 1600...

Mez was all smiles with a real live flash-suited dude (can't recall the name for them sorry). He was happy that the only things that now shoot at him are cameras, after a clean army service career of over 25 years... apparently he's one of only 35 and competition for places is tough which either makes him a really nice guy, or a bloody good liar - you be the judge!!!

The armoury was coolish too though you can't really imagine the gore that would have been the reality of those implements, and as for wearing all that armour... i dare say my somewhat light frame would struggle. Though these chicken legs have done me good thus far. Maybe they could handle a bit of chain mail? I'm sure they could stand the weight of the title... 'sir mo of the round table?!'

Crown Jewels, what can we say there? Maid Maryanne stated it well "Gosh she could probably sell these and pay off the third world's debt..." Having some cool things is I guess fair enough. God knows I have enough 'toys'. But where do you draw the line? Probably when it goes on display in a massive vault and you have to employ guards for your stuff 24/7 might be a good place to start. Point taken mez, point taken.

Overall? 8/10 - exciting, lots happening, cool architecture, lots of gardens, lots of squirrels, multi-cultural, lost points for being grey, glum looks on the faces of lots of locals, and the ostentatiousness of the crown jewels.

I think i should get the other two points at least for using two fabulous big words - ostentatious and aristocratic! or maybe the english get the points for inventing such wonderful language to describe their culture : - ) Enough of being a critic though - fabulous place, loved it, will be back.

OOOOO i almost forgot, man kiwi's think they have congestion issues... as we left London there was a traffic jam going back into London on the M1 - I kid you not about 30-40 miles long - three lanes wide!!! We must have passed more than the population of NZ on that motorway - now that's a traffic jam - poor sods, glad we were doing 80 in the opposite direction. Ok maybe it was 82. Ok it was 85, but that's all, I promise. later, mo

Spring Is Here!

Ryan is making the most of our new camera and has captured the first colours of spring.

Up until now England has very much been a blend of browns, greens, greys and black.

It was 10 days after arriving in Nottingham that the clouds cleared and the sun showered itself upon us...

So we went for a walk in the park.

Mez suddenly realised that we had shadows!! (exciting moment...apparently)

Even the ducks were rejoicing!

Mez gets creative

Colour My World

Looking out my window, seems only clouds in the sky
Closing, closing in on me, what will be for me... today?

Oh to You, the One beyond the clouds
Beyond all that my eye can see
You who knows my thoughts
You who knows my desires
What will be for me
This day?

Because today is Yours
I give it to You
Take the clouds, closing in on me
Here.
This day.
Break through.

Shine, shine, shine
Shine like there’s no tomorrow
My heart open to soak in Thee
For the sky in my heart is one so much greater than gray
Colour my world!

Let me glimpse of what lies beyond
Of a world waiting for the colour of me
A world made ready to be touched by the brightness
The brightness that is me!

Rhythm of Life is a Powerful Beat

Inspired by your words, Inspired by your sound; Your song
It’s ringing. Ringing so strong in my heart

That sound I cannot ignore. Foolish me if I do.
Because the joy, that beyond words kinda joy I feel, when I discover..

The song you sing, the one I hear,
No other ears hear it like I do
A tune so sweet, a rhythm so comforting
A beat so in tune with my heart
My song, You sing it for me, to me
Because you love me
You sing

And because I know I need you
Even more, because I know I love you
And in loving you I feel that rhythm ever stronger
I feel that beat more in tune with who I am
My inner most being, moves to its feeling

Oh the love
The love I feel, right now
This moment in time
No never will any other compare
As I realize You in the rhythm of my life

The song you sing, the one I hear,
No other ears hear it like I do
A tune so sweet, a rhythm so comforting
A beat so in tune with my heart
My song, You sing it for me, to me
Because you love me
You sing

I close my eyes and know that You’re here with me
There’s no greater Truth in that
The knowledge of You
So close
Beating to the rhythm of my life.
I Love You.

A Bit About Nottingham

Location: Central England

Population: 275,000 (20% of the population are in their 20s)

Best way to get around: By foot, bus, tram... not much parking and they have parking 'police' that pop out of nowhere.

Famous for: Rodin Hood and Sherwood Forest ring a bell?...

Robin Hood is Nottinghamshire's most famous son and the world's favourite folk hero. His adventures have been retold down the generations, from medieval ballads to Hollywood blockbusters. Tradition tells that Robin Hood was an outlaw who poached the king's deer in the royal hunting forest of Sherwood. Stories relate how travellers through the forest provided rich pickings for the gentleman robber and his band of "merry men". The tale (or is it?) goes that he outwitted the evil Sheriff of Nottingham, turning the tables on corrupt churchmen and officials who abused their power over an oppressed peasantry.




The Local Lingo
(Just in case you don't understand us when we come home!)

Wottjowant? - Do you want something?

Gizzabitt - Can I have some?

Gizzago - Can I have a turn?

Am tellin yammam! - Your Mother shall hear of this incident!

Wott yonnwee? - What are you doing?

Itwerr krapp! - It was not very good

Owdya orsuzz! - Please be patient!

Shuttya gobb! - Please be quiet!

Gerronn wee-it - Please carry on

Am nakkud - I'm a bit tired

Yo jammi sodd! - You lucky person

Tarrah then - Goodbye

Jono? - Do you realise?

Shintin - I'm afraid the lady of the house is not at home.

NOTTINGHAM - Our Home

We arrived in Nottingham about 2pm and went into Ryan's work. Met Ina the receptionist and Kate one of the physios working at the time.

From NZ we had been in touch with a couple Richard and Kate over the net about a flat they had advertised and so gave them a call. We had a look at a flat and (mez confesses) i fell in love straight away. It's cute (and no, that doesn't mean pokey and small), it's clean, it's got a view, it centrally heated and it's perfectly located between Ryan's work and the central shopping centre. And it's only a hop, skip and a jump from the main road which means easy access to bus services. We thought we'd have a look round at other flats but at the end of the day this place was perfect and so we took it. We moved in that night and by the next day we had a full pantry(larder) and pictures on the wall!

Here's a few photos:

Our street

Our shared front door from the street.

Inside: Dining ... Kitchen/ Laundry... Bedroom ... Lounge

A view out the window - we're on a bit of a rise and on the second floor. The garden below belongs to the flat below.

HELLO ENGLAND!

7 March

Arrival into Heathrow. A bit of a palava at customs while they sussed out a temporary 2 month visa for Ryan so that he could work till we get a new passport and visa re-instated.

We stayed two nights with Kathy, Allan, Zoe (R) and Emma (L) (relatives from Ryan's mum's side of the family) a fantastic family and we hope to spend more time with them while we're in the UK. We were also introduced to the resident squirrel who facinated Ryan to no end. He's become a real fan of the wee critters.


Our second day there we managed to go back to the airport and get our bikes (which we'd sent over) and rent a car for our drive up to Nottingham.

9th March
We took the 2.5hr drive up to Nottingham with the help of a satellite navigation system kindly lent to us by Alan, which got us here in one piece despite sending us up a tramway and trying to tell us to take offramps that no longer existed! Thankfully no M1 nightmares, though we're told that’s pretty lucky. We'd call it blessed and give credit where it’s due. Thanks big fella.

PARIS

3rd March

So onwards to Paris went we, the next long haul being a bit over 13 hours into Charles De Gaulle airport. Sweet as. I slept a bit over 6 hours on the plane which was cool, still a bit jaded on arrival into Paris at 6am. Then had to negotiate the French train system to get to our hotel in the St Lazare district (which is most famed for its instrument makers). Got to our hotel about 8.30-9ish and checked into our hotel. Unfortunately we managed to pick up a wee friend (we think) on the metro who was loitering behind us as we checked in. On getting to our room we discovered Mez's handbag (only purchased in Hong Kong a day earlier) which we had at reception downstairs was nowhere to be seen. The cleaners saw nothing, neither did the other hotel staff who were polite and helpful but didn't particularly give a damn. Infuriating because the bag had our passports and flight details in it as well as contact details for everything in England and bank details etc. Praise God though who teaches us as gently as he can, and we lost no cash or credit cards which would have really put us in a difficult position.

So Paris was a little dampened by having to spend half our time locating, ringing and going on various wild goose chases around embassies and police stations etc. to sort out emergency travel documents. Bit of a pain in the rear end but such is life. Evidently it's a side of Paris that a fair number of travellers get to see. My advice is be especially vigilant on the metro if you have gear and keep gear to a minimum. Alternatively you could act really weird and talk loudly about your advancing leprosy while itching frantically then maybe people would keep well clear of you... dunno the idea only just came to me.

In general Paris was cool. Freezing actually. Got to see some cool and undeniably beautiful buildings and monuments. I was very impressed with the peaceful Sacre Coeur with its choral singing nuns (we went for vespers) and a close second for me to Hillsong as far as churches went on this trip.

Notre Dame was cool, because it's Notre Dame ...

Arc De Triumphe was cool for a refresher about the genius and idocy of Napoleon’s endeavours. Great example of a leader who promised much to his followers (the soldiers) but failed to deliver the basic necessities (eg. Food, ammunition) so they had to kill lots of other people to get it!

La Tour Eiffel is cool, and so is the view from the top, but the restaurant we went to up there was efficient to the point of being rude as we were asked to finish our meals and leave so they could get ready for the next service - not so flash when you've paid €50 for your dinner! But was ok food.

We were very impressed with the Louvre and wished we had a bit more time there as you could easily spend days marvelling at the works of art within. We got to see the Mona Lisa and various other master pieces by Leonardo. I (mez) was overwhelmed by the size of some of the painting. Simply huge, meters long and meters high. Centuries and centuries old. Amazing. And the buildings themselves (an old palace that was extended by various French kings as a bit of one-upmanship I think) are simply exquisite. A highlight was probably the winged samothrace which was originally the headpiece of a ancient ship - beautiful and AWEsome, majestic sculpture.

Our time in Paris also marked our 1st Wedding Anniversary. Time has flown and we're proud of what we've managed to pack into the last year. Changing jobs and flats. Travelling to both ends of NZ - northland on our cycle tour and Dunedin to see many good friends before we departed NZ. As well as a pile of random missions to various locations inbetween. We've learnt that saving is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. We've had some great times with friends and family and great times just the two of us. We're looking forward to what lies ahead despite the challenges we may face along the way. Two is definitely better than one and we're both glad we're on this journey together.

HONG KONG

28 February 2006

Hong Kong here we come! Our first long haul. 9hrs 15mins I think. Cathay Pacific were wonderful. Even gave us US$25 each to spend on our next flight at the in flight store because there was some ‘problem’ and there were only 3 movies to choose from instead of 20! No complaints from us !

At Hong Kong Airport we were met by Glory. A lovely chap who would make sure we got to our hotel safely and who would be taking us on our city tour the next day. We stayed at the Majestic Hotel. Prime location, safe and very nice. Cannot speak highly enough of the service here which was easily the best of any hotel I’ve stayed at (which admittedly is pretty limited).

For our three days in Hong Kong we had no agenda other than to pick up a camera and handycam, see the sights; explore the markets and just soak up a bit of the asian culture.

Mez's Highlights:
Chinese fast food store, like McD’s but with asain food. Tastes good too!

The markets with the salespeople calling “here missy missy” “good price for you” then you take a little interest, they offer you a bag for 200HKD you umm and ahh a bit then they bring the price down to 150HKD. You decided you’re not interested and start to walk away and then they’re ready to sell it to you for 100HKD.

Our tour of Hong Kong with the lovely Glory. He was great tour guide, full of all sorts of information and a great help for directing us to a reputable electric store where we could look at buying our cameras without being taken for a ride (my biggest fear was of getting ripped off)

Going to Ocean Park with it’s spectacular gondola/ cable car ride with great views. The roller coaster rides and simply the fact it was a fun and sunny day. Downside to this was paying too much money for a portrait of the two of us. We should have protested. It was no where near the quality of the ones he had pinned up and to top it off it looks absolutely NOTHING like us!

Ryan's Highlights:
What’s important in life: the people, the people, the people, so says a maori proverb that anyone who knows Caro will know… The Chinese are just such an impressive people, so respectful, so polite, so playful, so clean.

We had some great encounters with locals who didn’t speak any English but would playfully take the piss out of me (never Mez) for eating with chopsticks the wrong way, and for sitting on the train when Mez was standing (she got up off my knee!!)

Mostly good stuff at reasonable prices, and the whole time you felt wealthy because the notes are so big!!

Cleanliness – they clean anything and everything – even the handrails in council parks! Which also means high employment people to clean such things are employed to do so as are people to greet you at any restaurant (including McDonalds) and other people who seem to stand around and do not a hell of a lot, but be at customers beck and call if needed… awesome service.

We managed to achieve our goals in Hong Kong which was just to make a couple of key purchases (A canon S2IS digital camera, and Sony DCR HC96E mini DV Camcorder for the techno-buffs and gear freaks). Both of which are very fun little toys that will help us capture memories for the next few years…

The other goal was really to experience the culture of the place – and I felt we did that pretty well, a wide variety of foods (mainly Japanese and traditional Chinese cuisine, including some fab yum cha…) Went to a great and well worth it revolving restaurant up on the 62nd floor of a high rise – bill came to $750HKD!!!

AUSTRALIA

Unfortunately we don't have any pics of our time in Australia.
Note: Writing in italics are Ryan's comments/ thoughts

25 February 2006

We left Wellington: destination – Sydney. Thank God we’d packed well and Ryan had left half his shoes at home so we weren’t over the luggage allowance. Actually it was more than half that got left behind, a decision I am now rueing when I have the choice of only one pair to wear to work, but on the upside it is an awfully good excuse to buy more…

Once in Sydney we successfully negotiated the train system finding ourselves at West Mead station. There we were met by a colleague of Mikaela’s (Mez’s sista) who picked us up in Mikaela’s car which we were to use over the next three days.

We stayed at the YWAM (that’s Youth With A Mission) house getting up early the next stinking hot day to drive to Forbes. That morning we also went to Hillsong Church – a huge church that also make a lot of Christian CDs – that was a pretty amazing experience. Definitely one of the highlights for me as far as church stuff went on this trip – big scale but very friendly, good teaching, very down to earth and real life issues being dealt with obviously on a weekly basis with of course a top class worship team and multimedia… the only thing we both thought was that there was a little too much of Darlene on the projection...

After a 3hr drive through the Aussie countryside we found ourselves in the middle of no-where, otherwise known as Forbes. Not much to say about the place itself we stayed with Jim Fox aka (Ryan's) Grandfather. We only had 24hrs in Forbes but it was nice for me to meet Jim and also Ryan’s aunty and uncle who live there too. Jim even pumped out a few tunes on the old organ for us.

So Monday morning we drove back to Sydney to drop off the car and make our way to our airport accommodation. However just to make the most of our travel insurance we made a stop at the local GP as Ryan had somehow managed to contract bird flu!!!....well not quite a nasty raging ear infection though. Thankfully Augmentin is a wonderful drug and by the time we were boarding our flight early the next morning he was feeling 10 times better.

Time for a catch-up!

Right well we've decided we'll have a go at blogging! Might make it easier for you all to see some of our photos and for us to keep you up to date with where we're at and what we're up to. So here goes!