September 2007 Update

ello again

In September we decided to get outside and take full advantage of the weather while it was still halfway decent.

We started by going on a camping trip with friends that we'd met through Matt and Moni (Jon, Amy, Magda & Chainey). We went to Epping Forest, which is only 40 mins away from home, and comprises of 7 massive fields and a toilet block, oh and a Forest...
We were allowed open fires so we spent the weekend gathering firewood, building fires, watching Jon cook up some amazing meals and having the odd drink. Had a wonderful time hanging out and the weather was blue sky all weekend which made it even better !

Next trip was a hastily planned drive up to Scotland to watch the All Blacks. A friend managed to find some tickets for us that were selling at face value (!) so we snapped them up and tried to find some last minute accommodation. Most places were full so we decided to drive up to Glasgow and stay our first night there. Glasgow was lovely, we stayed in a very nice B&B (www.craigparkguesthouse.com) and walked 1 mile down the road to check out a newly built area called Merchant City. Loads of restaurants, bars and shops to look at and we managed to time our visit with a festival so there were a few people and some bands on hand to give it a very pleasant atmosphere.

Next day we drove an hour from Glasgow to our hotel in Dunfermline, dropped off our bags at reception, and drove 20 mins to get to central Edinburgh.
Couldn't believe how many kiwis were wandering around - it felt like half of the NZ population had turned out for the game ! We couldn't walk down the main street cause the path was so crowded, so we ducked down the back streets and had some lunch at a very busy restaurant which looked very American but had haggis on the menu. Manu was brave enough to try Haggis burger and I stuck to less hearty stuff (ha ha).

At the game we chatted to an elderly Scottish couple who were sitting behind us and an Irish girl (with a kiwi boyfriend) who was decked out in her All Blacks gear. The game was great and the first few tries had all the kiwis hyped, but after we'd put in a decent lead we started sitting down when NZ scored tries - it was like we were bored or something !!
At the end of the game the Scottish couple were pretty sad that their team didn't score a try but they did recall watching another game with Jonah Lomu and "wasn't he a strapping lad".

After the game the crowd spilled out onto the streets and caused havoc for the cars. People were stopped at the lights and not able to move because of the crowd, so a few of the kiwi lads decided to have some fun... they pulled out whistles and blew the 'Milo' tune (kiwi drink) until the car owner tooted the horn. They went down the line of cars and wouldn't move on till the owner tooted their horn. It wasn't long till the crowd would cheer when the car horn was tooted - it was a bit of fun and the crowd really got into it - see the video below...



We had fun and then we got back to our car and realised we had to wait for the crowd to leave before we could go - d'oh! at least it was free parking !

We headed back to the hotel and had a spot of dinner in Dunfermline that night.

Next morning we packed up and headed back into Edinburgh. We just had to see Edinburgh castle before we left. It had been decommissioned in the late 1600's when the English monarchy took over and it had been converted into a series of rooms for the Scottish government. There were some gorgeous views and we got to see the royal sceptre, crown, sword & belt which had been rescued in the 1800's.

We also visited a Whisky shop on the Royal Mile. Ever tried asking a retailer for "Auchentoshan"? it was quite amusing. We were pronouncing it as 'O-shen-toe-shan' but he set us right, you have to be Scottish and add the Ock Jimmy! it's pronounced 'Ock-in-tosh-in'.

Our final trip for the month was a quick 2 hour drive up to Stratford-upon-Avon with Matt & Ala. We went there so Manu could participate in a sprint triathlon (400m swim, 23km bike, 5km run). It was a beautiful little town brimming with character and charm which was apparently the birthplace of Shakespeare.

Manu did really well in his race and despite some pre-race jitters he ended the race with a big smile on his face.

Afterwards we took a wander through the township and went to a French fair which happened to be on that same weekend. We bought some french cheese and bread then came across some interesting sausages (that sounds rude but it's not meant to !). We bought Blueberry, Ostrich, Walnut, Fig and Buffalo sausage (and some chorizo for a yummy jumbalaya rice recipe). Then we took our purchases out to the countryside and had a fabulous meal that put everyone (except the driver) to sleep on our way back to London.

That's all to report in September.
Thanks for reading

Anita & Manu
xx