Jan - July 2008 Highlights

Keeping regular blog posts does seem to be challenging for us - we're enrolling in classes and learning from blog masters any day now promise........

The highlights of the last 7 months - wow it really has gone that quickly!!

ULY

We started our month with a super sprint triathlon in Crewkerne, Somerset. The tri was a 250m swim, 10km bike ride & 2.5km run. Manu & Matt did the whole thing while the girls (Melissa, Ala & Anita) did the tri as a relay team. Even with an injured team member and some pretty rotten weather it was still great fun and we were all keen to do another one in the near future. test

Around this time we had a few visitors arrive. Shelly - a friend of a friends - arrived from NZ and stayed with us for a couple of weeks while she got a job and sorted out some living arrangements.
Then Matilda (Manu's cousin) and her friend Grace spent a week with us while they saw the sights, met old friends and got ready for their Top Deck tour which started in Budapest.

After all the guests left, we took off on seperate holidays - Manu went to Berlin for a boys weekend with Matt Parker & Brendon, while Anita went to Cork with Matt & Ala.
Berlin consisted of clubbing till 6am and enjoyable bike rides around the flat, scenic city.
While in Cork, Anita met Ala's siblings, helped celebrate her brothers wedding anniversary, and spent a day at the beach.


UNE

Summer is upon us!!! We've been having bbq's with friends and generally enjoying the warm weather.

Early in June, Manu spent a week in Malaga, Spain on a TaiChi retreat. He heard about it from his regular Thursday night TaiChi group so he decided to check it out. The accommodation consisted of several permanent TeePee's and 3-4 times a day he'd go up to a platform on a hill and do TaiChi. When he wasn't practicing TaiChi he was swimming, reading, snoozing or partying, he came back to London sooooo relaxed and ready to go again next year.

While Manu was away, Anita spent a long weekend at her first UK music festival - The Download Festival and got back to her metal roots. Anita felt under pierced and under tattoed but really enjoyed the music - favourites were Disturbed, Offspring and Incubus.

Anita also went to the London Taste Festival with Matt, Ala, Steve & Melissa. The Taste festival consists of loads of London restaurants offering bite size portions of their culinary best (oh and there was some lovely wines too) plus we discovered a bunch of Welsh guys who were distilling their own Toffee Vodka and it was delicious!!

AY

Nine of us decided to go camping in Epping Forest since the weather seemed to be improving, but wouldn't you know it, just before our scheduled camping excursion it rained for a couple of days straight and we arrived at the campsite to find a thick layer of mud covering the lower points of the fields. We didn't shy away from the challenge though... nope, we donned the gumboots/wellys and had fun playing in the mud. Probably the most bizarre event of the weekend was running into people dressed as Orcs (from Lord of the Rings) - they were filming for a new movie which follows the life of Gollum - these English are crazy...

On the 19th, Anita left Manu in charge and headed back to NZ for 3 weeks to support a friend while her dad was sick. While she was there she did some house hunting and ended up putting an offer on a place just before she left for London.
Due to our slack updating of the blog we can now speed through time and let you know that the house is officially ours (see we're slack for a good reason) and as of the 18th of July it was tenanted by some pretty damn fine tenants (or so we hope).

A massive thanks to some legendary efforts by our family who tidied up the place before the tenants arrived - thank you so very much Mum & Dad Pos, Anne, Uncle Tom, Aunty Corolyn, and Gavin for the fantastic work done to improve the place.

On the other side of the world, we did work of a different kind - it definately involved elbow grease as it's extremely hard to bend the elbow without some form of liquid to assist the joints... but it probably wasn't as strenuous as the NZ working bee... we had a party to celebrate the new purchase and it was a lovely wee party too.

Meanwhile... during Anita's stint in NZ Manu and Matt went out partying.

They joined a group of revellers who were having a party on the tube. The new mayor of London had legislated a ban on drinking alcohol on the tube from the 1st of June, so a party was organised on the 31st of May.
Manu had a fantastic time riding the tube with friends but was most unhappy when an unfriendly arm yanked him off the train at one of the stations on the Metropolitan line - he was about to protest when he realised the arm was connected to a bobby and he was being questioned!

The rest of the group who was with him were also pulled off the train and told to quieten down, including Matt, who was pulled to one side (possibly to do with the purple hat which made him stick out like dogs bollocks). So, after being intercepted, several of the group scattered to avoid the scene but as true party goers, it wasn't long before they made a new meeting point at Baker Street station.

Manu and Matt were some of the first to arrive at Baker Street station and while they waited for the rest of the group they observed a dozen police vehicles descend on the tube station. Sensing a repeat of their last encounter, Matt promptly signaled a friendly gesture of hello using a single finger and was not surprised to find he was roughly pulled to one side for a wee chat. Thankfully it was just a 'friendly' chat and he was released soon after, in time to see the station closed down and catch a bus back to the Finchley Road Walkabout where they finished up the evening.

The next weekend that came along saw Manu, Matt, Ala, Morgan, Steve & Melissa making their way to the Cambridge Beer Festival. They drank some good ale and went punting on the river Cam. Manu had a go at punting and despite almost falling in a couple of times, had fun and enjoyed the ride - although he did get quite wet.


What is punting?
Punting is one of Cambridge’s chief attractions. Punts are flat-bottomed boats which, because they don’t have a keel, are usually steered with a long pole (about 10 foot long). Somebody (usually the drawer of the short straw!) stands on the platform at the back and pushes the pole against the river bed in order to move the punt. The end of the pole that goes in the water has two metal prongs on it to help you get a grip.


PRIL

This month started with Manu deciding to redeem his birthday present (before it expired) so he went indoor skydiving with Matt Parsons in the early hours of a Saturday morning.

Our major find of the month was a membership to Costco - the most wonderful place in the world... for those of you who haven't had a chance to experience this magical place - think of it as a Disneyland for adults! (it's also just as costly as Disneyland when the adults get carried away..).

We also took a trip up to Harpendon - one of those townships on the outskirts of London which are a mere 1 hour train ride from the city centre. Our good friends Jon & Amy had bought a place out that way and invited us all (incl. Matt & Ala) up for the weekend. We arrived to find Amy was pregnant and already 5 months into her pregnancy - a wonderful way to start a weekend. The rest of the weekend involved celebrations at many different pubs - luckily Amy didn't miss out as she's never liked alcohol, so we just toasted the new parents instead.


ARCH

This month, we had a bit of a mixed bag as far as weather goes. It was supposed to be getting warmer as spring approached but instead we had a bout of snow. Thankfully Bryce & Georgina - our friends from San Francisco - came to London just after the cold snap, although it was still pretty chilly. They managed to show themselves around London and saw loads of things that we haven't had a chance to see, then on the weekends we had some fun galavanting around the countryside to see Bath, Stonehenge, Dover and Canterbury

Over Easter, Manu went on a boys snow trip to the French Pyrenees (with Matt Parsons and Brendon). They had a great time exploring the slopes. One day after finishing up on the slopes the boys headed down to the bar and grabbed a table beside a couple. The couple left and after a bit their friend came along to ask if she could sit in the free seat. The friend started chatting with the boys and played a couple of hands of cards with them. After awhile the boys started getting hungry so they said goodbye to their new friend and headed back to their room - to dump their stuff and then went down to the restaurant. Once at the restaurant and seated the girl came along to their table and asked if they'd mind some company - the boys being the gracious guys they are, let her sit at the table and have a meal with them. At some point during dinner the boys mentioned they were married and it wasn't long after that their new friend raced off to socialise with her friends and she no longer hung out with them. It appears the 'rings of power' (wedding rings) worked their magic.... and you thought I was going to say she was a prostitute - shame on you !!!


EBRUARY

This month started with a bang ! Manu surprised Anita with a mystery trip for her birthday and he was insanely good at keeping the secret (much to Anita's chagrin). Anita had no idea where he was taking her until she got to the check-in counter and Manu produced her passport for a surprise trip to Paris - so romantic !
We travelled there on the Eurostar, which took about 2 hours. A flight would have taken about an hour, but when comparing check in times and transit times to get to the airport, the Eurostar was 100% better. It was slightly more expensive but we definately felt that was worth it for the comfort and diminished processing time.

In Paris we visited places that we'd both missed on our prior (separate) visits to the city. We braved the massive queues and went up the Eiffel tower, took a 3 hour bike tour around the city, went up the Arc de Triomphe and then did some wandering around the Louvre, Place de la Concorde and Champs Elysees. We had such a lovely time - it was a fantastic weekend and Manu scored heaps of brownie points!

On the 22nd of Feb we left London for a trip back to New Zealand. Anita's Dad's birthday was on the 29th of February and his birthday only 'officially' comes around every 4 years so it's a bit of an event.
This time around he had a cowboy themed party with optional dress up. Anita's immediate family went as dancing girls, cowboys & mexicans. It was loads of fun.

While we were there, Anita took the plunge and had laser eye surgery to correct her short sightedness, it was just amazing how quick, easy and painless the procedure was. She is thrilled with the results and happy that she doesn't have to bother with contacts or glasses anymore - yay!!!


ANUARY

There isn't alot to say about January really.
We got back from India and looked at London in a whole different light, it had a gleam on it that we hadn't noticed before (which is quite a bizarre feeling considering London is not the cleanest city about) but in contrast to some of the poverty and terrible living conditions we'd witnessed in Delhi it sure seemed like we live the good life and it helped us to appreciate it more.

Our house guest, Jim, left us to complete the final leg of his world tour and make his way back to NZ. Then a week later, Matt, Moni & Ollie came to stay for a week.

That's about all our news, glad to have you with us, hope you've enjoyed our adventures as much as we have.

Big Manu hugs
Anita & Manu
xx