9 weeks in the UK

After 9 weeks I am feeling pretty comfortable in the UK. Shortly after my last post I got a call from an agent on a Monday, had an interview on the Tuesday and was starting a contract the following week. So with a weight off my shoulders I wanted to make the most of my last free week.

I organised a day trip to Nottingham to visit my friend Emma. It was a nice train ride (about 2 hours) and I had a great day and checked out the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem and Nottingham Castle. I am hoping Emma will make a trip to London one of these days (hint, hint).

The Monday I was meant to start work was a public holiday (an extra day off after 4 months - can't complain) so Roger and Marj had organised a trip to Bath. A couple of my flatmates and I did some fast running to make the 8:30 train at Paddington, arriving with seconds to spare. I am seeing a pattern with running for trains. Bath is another spectacularly picturesque little town. The roman baths were amazing and we managed to hop onto a walking tour of the city. It turned out that 90% of the people were from Australia :-) I have put a link at the bottom to pics.

So the fateful day finally arrived however after so long off work I was feeling excited and looking forward to working. I got a contract with QBE (an Australian insurance company, funnily enough) as a SQL/Wintel technical specialist for a new insurance underwriting project that they are rolling out. I have been there just over a month now and am loving the work.

So anyhow, being back at work is taking up most of weekdays. The crew I am working with are very social and it is not unusual to have several nights a week where we will go to the pub. Tomorrow night my project manager is taking the team out for curry :-) I did have a little issue after one night out where I fell asleep on the last tube and it took me a couple of hours to get back from Wemberly. One suggestion has been to stand on the tube when I am tired....

Just over two weeks ago Kasey arrived for a whirlwind 10 day stay. I met her at the airport on the Friday morning and we caught up with her dad who had just finished a two week golfing trip to wales. She spent the day with her dad while I headed into work. After work I caught up again with Kasey, her dad and her sister. We went out near the West End for dinner with their family friends the Tierney's. After a lovely meal and a grilling from the Tierney's over dinner Kasey was zonked and we tubed it home.

Saturday we all met (the Clark's and the Tierney's) at the Imperial War Museum at 10am. There was an Ian Flemming/James Bond display on which I enjoyed and the bunker exhibit was impressive. We ended up at embankment for lunch and experienced some woeful English pub service though when we finally got the food it was nice. After parting ways with the Tierney's We spent the afternoon around Covent Garden and went to see Buddy Holly in the evening.

Sunday it was a later start and Amy, Greg, Kasey and myself went to this awesome wine bar at Embankment called Gordon's Wine Bar. It is like catacombs carved into the rock and is only lit by candle. They server an amazing cheese platter as well. We then headed to Surrey to have a look at the school where Amy works and to have high tea at Great Fosters. We left Amy at Surrey and Greg, Kasey and myself headed back to London.

Kasey and I got up early Monday to help her dad take his gear to the airport. Our plan had then been to head to London tower and make our way along the river however in true London form the weather was dismal so we headed to Harrods instead and found their chocolate cafe :-) Absolutely delicious. We then headed to Leicester square to the biggest cinema in the UK, seating upto about 1700 people to see the new Indiana Jones movie. Both feeling a bit buggered we had a quiet meal together in West Hampstead.

I was back to work on Tuesday so Kasey was left to entertain herself. Tuesday night my flat mates, Julie (a Kirribilli Running friend) and Amy (Kasey's sister) all met up at the pub for a beer before going out for dinner. It was a very entertaining night.

Wednesday I worked again and then in the afternoon caught up with Kasey to catch the train to Luton Airport to fly to Italy. We had a good flight and arrived in Milan pretty much on time. We had hired a car so I got my first experience driving a manual with the gear stick on the wrong side :-) All went well and we got to Como about 1am. We caught up with Catherine (this was the girl Kasey was visiting when she was in Australia) in the morning and began our touring, eating and drinking. We had a fabulous time and the scenery was spectacular. Links to pictures at end (have to motivate you to read the blog....ok I know you are just going to scroll to the end anyway).

We got back to London late Sunday night and then once again Kasey and I had to say goodbye when she flew out on Sunday.

I am off to visit Nigel in France in a fortnight which is very exciting. I am catching the eurostar through the tunnel. I also have a few other trips in mind but nothing definite yet. I will probably go to Boston for 10 days at the start of August but still working that out as well.

If you have got to here I hope you haven't fallen asleep. I definitely wasn't born a writier and struggle to post more often. Oh well below are a few links to photos. Hope you enjoy.


Photos of Bath & Nottingham

Photos of Kasey's visit & Italy

Sunny UK

It is hard to believe that I will have been in the UK 3 weeks tomorrow. Once again time is flying along. I had a great farewell from Boston with drinks out with friends on the Friday night and then a lovely dinner with Kasey on the Saturday night at Rialto. It was a hard farewell from Kasey at the airport but she has booked flights to the UK and will be over towards the end of May for 10 days so we are both looking forward to that.

My last couple of weeks in Boston were busy studying for my Finsia exams. I sat the exams in my last week in Boston at the office of one of Kasey's friends. After each exam I visited the Union Oyster House next door for a cup of New England clam chowder. This stuff is so good, if you are ever in Boston I definitely recommend a visit.

Before leaving Boston I booked a hotel for two nights for when I arrived in London. The hotel was in a suburb called Bayswater which is meant to be very popular for lower budget travellers to stay. After dropping off the suitcase the first task was procuring a mobile SIM. As luck would have it I contacted two friends who I worked with at BT and they were living a couple of blocks from where I was staying. I caught up with them on the first evening and we enjoyed a few beers and they gave me the low down on getting started in the UK. They had arrived at the end of February and had got most of their stuff sorted. They were also very generous and offered me their couch for a few nights which I took up. This was definitely a good start to the UK leg of my trip.

The following days I was focused on getting somewhere to live and seeing some of the sights. Getting somewhere to live was a daunting task. There are a number of websites (gumtree, spareroom, roomtorent) that have hundreds of listings however when you have no idea where you will be working and where you want to live it is hard to narrow it down. My parents were a great help spending hours sifting through the ads and sending me the best ones. The first place I looked at was an absolute hole. I wouldn't have lived there if you had paid me and it was 130 quid/week. I thought if that was what you got for 130 I would have to up the money. Anyhow after looking at a number of places and not really seeing anything that jumped out at me I found a place on the Friday at Queens Park which I was going to take. I had arranged to meet the agent to pay the deposit at 1pm however he called me at 12pm and said his colleague had already leased it and so I was back to square one. I had already made use of my 250 pound overdraft to get the deposit :-) (my Australian money was still being transferred to my UK account)

Feeling a little disheartened, I arranged to look at a place on the Saturday in West Hampstead. It was a newly refurbished flat and the couple that were living there were very friendly. It was more expensive than I had original planned but I decided to take the room. I would move in the following Saturday which worked out great because one of my friends from the Kirribilli Runners was going to France for a weeks holiday and was letting me stay at her place in Islington. It was a great feeling having somewhere to live and this meant I could refocus my energies to finding a job.

I had posted my resume on a number of the UK jobsites prior to leaving Boston but had only received one or two calls since being in the UK. I decided to completely revamp the resume (using Roger's lovely template) and see if that improved the hit rate. It has now been two weeks of countless applications and phone calls to agents. I have seven agents who have put my resume forward to various companies and who I am waiting to hear whether I have got interviews. The whole process is very frustrating and I haven't found the transparency with agencies very good. The job market in the financial industry has definitely taken a big hit due to the credit crunch and this hasn't been helping my cause. Newspaper articles such as this aren't good. This relocating exercise is definitely teaching me some patience and I am confident that something will come up shortly.

Well enough of the boring stuff, now onto the fun stuff. I have been getting around the city a fair bit and have seen all the most common tourist attractions. I must admit walking out of Westminster tube stop and seeing Big Ben and Westminster was an amazing site. The detail in the building is unbelievable.

Last weekend my flat mates, Roger and Marj and myself did a trip to Cambridge. This is a lovely little village and we took a punt along the river Cam and toured along all the famous colleges. We finished the afternoon with a beer next to the river. Photos of Cambridge

On Tuesday Marj and myself took the train to Windsor and toured the castle. Not a bad place to live but if I was the queen I think I would get Heathrow to change their flight paths :-) We also scooted across the river and checked out Eaton. It was great weather which was nice change. Tuesday night I caught up with another ex BT friend, Lara, for her birthday dinner in Farringdon. Photos of Windsor

Well Anzac day in London definitely doesn't cut it. I toured the local area and visited Hampstead Heath (I think I will be doing some running here). I thought I would checkout the local Walkabout (Australian themed pub chain in the UK) to see what Anzac activities were occurring only to be faced with not a single sign of two up or for that matter, any sign of Anzac day at all. Not to worry a few of us Aussies over here celebrated a belated Anzac day yesterday. Photos of Greenwich

Saturday I caught up with Marj and a group of Aussies and we caught the ferry to Greenwich. It was a stunning day and people were out in force. After a hearty Mexican lunch with sangria we ventured up the hill to the Royal Observatory and stood on the meridian line. I got out the GPS and looked at the longitude saying 0 degrees. We celebrated into the night and visited the Shaftesbury Ave walkabout. I tried the famous snakebites and danced into the wee hours.

This blog is a little long but that is my own fault for not blogging more often :-) I am heading to a grill (I assume it is the same as a bbq) tonight with the flatmates which should be good fun. General photos of London

Some more skiing but struck by the flu

Well with less than two weeks left in the US I am now in cram mode for my course. I have exams on Tuesday 1st April and also on Thursday 3rd April. I having been watching Bloomberg Television for inspiration :-)

Last week while in Vermont skiing I got struck down by the flu. I was meant to have three days skiing at Sugarbush but only managed to fit one in before I retired to the lodge to rest. The flu knocked me out for nearly a whole week. I did manage to rally for a couple of meals out over the weekend. It looks like Kasey might be catching it but I'm hoping she can shake it.

Spring officially started in the US on the 20th March however up until today it had remained pretty cold.

There has been a fair bit happening since I last blogged. I have turned 30. Yes, I now have to tick a new category on surveys. It was celebrated in style though at the Capital Grill with a pepper steak and bottle of 2004 Elderton Shiraz (this is my favourite wine at the moment and I have a case of it back in Australia and I hadn't seen it on any menus in the US till my birthday). Thanks to those who contributed to my sisters scrap book. It was a lovely present. My parents shipped me a few kg's of chocolate and I have been making good progress on that. Kasey took me to dinner and also gave me a voucher for a new pair of joggers.

St Patrick's day was a very large celebration. We started on Saturday night with a fondue dinner followed by an Irish band with friends and the bar even had wheat beer. It was a very entertaining night. Sunday saw us visit Worchester (pronounced Woosta) for a Saw Doctor's concert (very appropriately an Irish band) and we managed to keep the celebrations going on Monday meeting Kasey for lunch and then heading into Boston. My fellow St Patrick's revellers are pictured left :-)

It was probably a combination of these big days and the cold weather that earned me the flu. I headed to Vermont with Kasey's cousin Frank for what was meant to be 3 days of skiing. I did fit one day of skiing in before the flu hit me so not all was bad.

I have started to think about what I need to do for the UK. I fly out on the 6th April so am now looking at options for work and accommodation.

Oh well, I should get back to the study. Hope everyone is well.

Time is flying

Another few weeks have passed since I last blogged. Kasey has started her new job at Body and Soul and is starting to settle in. During her week off we caught up with a lot of her friends and did a fair bit of eating out :-)

I went to Harvard to watch a squash tournament and remembered that I hadn't played squash since August. How time flies. The Gadient's, (family friends of Kasey's from Minnesota who's son Edward was playing in the squash tournament) took us out for a lovely dinner at Aquitaine.

After a bit of an effort, I have completed my assignments for my Finsia course with a few hours to spare :-) One of my assignments was due the same day Kasey had her annual Oscar party, so I was under the pump. We had a good turnout though I didn't have much luck with picking the winners.

Last weekend we headed to Portland, Maine. A very beautiful little town with a great harbour. It was about a 3 hour drive north from Boston. They make this great wheat beer called Allagash white which I love. There are lots of nice restaurants and bars throughout the city.

I have been keeping up the ice skating but haven't run in a few weeks now :-) I have bruises all over my body but I have been enjoying it. The ice is definitely as hard as concrete.

I am going to start doing some research for the UK shortly but I'm hoping the rest of my time in the US doesn't go too quickly. I am loving the relaxing but will have to do some study shortly for my exams in the first week of April.

Time for an update

Well I have been a bit slack with my blogging and thought it was time to give an update. It becomes hard to remember what I did three weeks ago :-)

Part of my xmas present from Kasey were tickets to the Bruins game (Ice Hockey game). I thoroughly enjoyed the game and the Bruins won. There were a couple of fights but nothing too bad and I got some ideas for ice skating.

It was definitely the coldest Australia Day I have ever experienced. Kasey and I visted friends of hers and watched a movie which we followed with beers and pizza. It was a good day and definitely a contrast to Australia.

I have been doing some ice skating over the last few weeks. There is a rink about 3km's from Kasey's house down by the Charles River. I have scored a couple of nice bruises but I'm starting to get the hang of going backwards. The aim is not to get any broken bones. I bought a pair of skates the other weekend so I'm definitely getting serious now :-)

On the 2nd Feb Kasey took me on a day trip to Cape Cod which was lovely. We had a warm day (it is all relative) and we managed to get all the way to Provincetown on the tip of the cape. The cape gets packed with tourists during the summer months but is very quiet in winter. It is interesting to see snow on top of sand while looking out at the Atlantic.

Sunday night was the superbowl. The New England Patriots were favourites after a record breaking season with no losses. Kasey and I went over to one of her workmates to watch the game which started about 6:30pm. While the game is only 60 minutes with all the stopping and ad's it takes about 4 hours to complete. The Patriots were leading at half time and all was looking good. The NY Giants scored in the second half and it was a somber mood until the Patriots scored with about 2 minutes to go and we thought they were home but they were pipped at the post when the Giants scored with 35 seconds left on the clock. There were a lot of unhappy Bostonians on the Monday.

This past weekend we went skiing at Killington in Vermont. It was amazing to see all the snow and we had an awesome time. We were staying at a lodge in the middle of the mountain. I have put a few picutures up. Kasey's cousin Frank and I stayed an extra day however I didn't get any extra skiing due to the gale force wind that blew in on Sunday night. There were only three lifts open on the mountain on Monday and they were all away from each other. The temperature was about -15 degrees celsius and the chill factor -25 degrees. I had hand and toe warmers :-)

In other news, Kasey got a new job the other week and finishes with Reed tomorrow (she has been there for 13 years). She is very excited about the new job which is with a magazine called Body & Soul (Martha Stewart publication) as managing editior however she is also sad to be leaving her old company where she has many friends.

I have been doing some work on my course. My mid-trimester assignments are due in a couple of weeks so I will have to get motivated. I have been doing plenty or reading and relaxing as well as entertaining Duffy.

Click on the picture below to see some more pics.

Killington Vermont

I took a small video with my cameral going down one of the trails back to our lodge.

Freezing Minnesota

Kasey and I have just got back from a lovely long weekend in freezing cold St Paul, Minnesota visiting her family and friends. I thought I had experienced some cold nights down the snow in Australia but that was nothing. The moment we walked out of the airport it felt like my jeans had frozen. The temperature hit a low of -14 degrees Fahrenheit (just short of -26 degrees Celsius) while we were there and that doesn't include the windchill which was meant to be as low as -37 degrees Celsius :-)

The picture is of the Minnehaha frozen waterfall right near St Paul. It was amazing but after about 10 minutes out of the car I felt like I was starting to freeze solid.

Minnesota was a 3 hour flight from Boston and we arrived Thursday night. Friday I got a tour of St Paul and some of Kasey's haunts. We then visited the famous Mall of America and had a ride on one of the roller coasters. We spent the evening at drinks with Kasey's friends at a place called the Happy Gnome and they had a lovely witte beer on tap which kept me going until they called last drinks.

Saturday started with some famous Clark dough cakes (not so good for the arteries) but very tasty and moreish (Americans don't seem to know what this means). I did some more touring around St Paul and visited the falls. Saturday evening was Kasey's (somewhat delayed) Xmas celebration and I met more of her family.

Sunday we headed down to Wabasha with Kasey's mum and step dad. They have a unit that is right on the mighty Mississippi river. It was a relaxing 90 minute drive from Boston and we travelled through farmland in Wisconsin. We went out for dinner in Lake City.

Monday we travelled back to St Paul and sorted out the packing before going to lunch with Kasey's dad. We spent the afternoon touring Minneapolis (the twin city to St Paul across the Mississippi) and walked the skyway. We also found a frozen lake for me to walk on and I managed to have a quick chat to a few ice fisherman who were setting up. They estimated the ice was approximately 50cm thick.

We had a good trip back last night and I have had a relaxing day today. There are a few wet flakes of snow falling out the window now. Most of the snow that fell the other week has melted. I will put a few more pictures from the last few days up here.

First run in the snow

Well, it was hard to decide what to run in but I settled on a t-shirt and shorts with gloves and a beanie. It was about -1 degrees Celsius but there was no wind. After about 20 minutes I had warmed up enough to take the gloves off.

I have mapped my route. Very nice run along the Charles river with the snow filled trees. I did have some issues with snow puddles and my lovely new white socks weren't so white by the time I finished :-)

It is snowing!!!

Well, it is definitely snowing now. It started about 3am this morning and everywhere is covered in about 10-15cm of snow. The snow is expected to keep falling into the afternoon. Kasey is working from home today along with most of Boston it seems :-)

I went for a walk this morning with Kasey and Duffy. It isn't too cold but I still had a lot of layers on. It looks amazing.

I have had a good few days. Friday night Kasey and I celebrated our Christmas. We went to this fondue restaurant in Boston (mmm, cheese and chocolate). Saturday we headed to Boston Common and went ice skating at the frog pond. Yesterday we headed to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for the Napoleon exhibit and some lunch with Paulina (one of Kasey's friends). The museum didn't do too much for me but it was a good day.

Kasey and I are heading to Minnesota on Thursday evening where I will get some really cold weather. Supposedly it will be about -20 degrees Celsius.

There are a few more pics here.

First stop Boston

Well, I arrived in Boston without any issues and on time. It was great to see Kasey at the airport and the weather was pretty warm so it wasn't too much of a shock.

I have been taking it pretty easy the last few days. I went for a walk around Brighton and sorted out my mobile phone credit on Tuesday. I also fitted a run in and looked at getting a new seat for Kasey's bike (the last one got stolen since my visit last year). I'm still tossing up how much riding I would be able to do though with the weather (I'm not sure about riding on ice). I visited Kasey's work and had a beer with one of her colleagues (tried the Sam Adam's Winter, bit dark for me but not too bad).

Yesterday was very much a veg out day (think I had a little jet lag). I was planning to head into the city after lunch but felt zonked so had a little nana nap :-)

Kasey has cooked for me the last two nights so I'm going to whip up something tonight (not sure what yet). I am planning to head into the city this afternoon and have a wonder.

One hop in

Hey, well I am now in LA. It was a pretty uneventful flight however the entertainment system did stop working for a few hours and they had to reboot the whole system. I concluded it was based on Microsoft :-) I still managed to get 3 and 3/4 movies in and about hundred pages into my book.

I am using a workstation in the Qantas lounge as they don't provide free wireless access to Qantas members :-( It is currently midday on the 7th in LA and my flight is at 1:30pm so not long to go. Then a short 6 hour hop to Boston where Kasey will be picking me up about 10pm Boston time.

Here I go

Well, after an awesome couple of months and some brilliant farewells I am finally finishing the packing and will be on the plane this afternoon.

The suitcase looks ready to burst but I have got a fair amount of stuff into it. The weather is meant to be pretty warm (tops of 12 degrees Celsius) when I get to Boston so I might be able to ease into winter.