Monday, October 30, 2006

Manchester and the North-West

We had a fantastic weekend visiting Neil's Aunt and Uncle in Manchester and exploring the beautiful walled city of Chester. I was surprised to discover how close we were to Wales and begged to be taken there. As it wasn't far out of our way we popped in briefly to Mold and wandered through the local marketplace. Wales is experiencing a very successful language revival - note the dual language signs which are compulsory throughout Wales. Note also some Welsh hills in the background :-)

Chester is lovely and we will definitely return in the future to explore in more detail. We wandered through the shopping district - unusual in its two-tiered architecture - and walked along part of the city wall. After a stroll down to the River Dee we visited Chester's Roman Ruins and popped in all-too-briefly to the archaeological museum.

The rest of the weekend consisted of much boisterous revelry with the cousins. Marina and Frank really know how to put on a spread :-D Manchester will be a great base for further travels in the north, and we look forward to heading back up there at Christmas time for another big family do.

In other news, we have settled in well in the new flat and have ironed out most of the problems. We should have internet connected within a few days so watch out for much more frequent posting here from then.

Ciao, Diane

P.S. Still trying to get bookings for Paris :-(

Sunday, October 15, 2006

A thousand million miles

That's how far I've walked in the two weeks that we've been here. I've worn out one pair of shoes and had to buy more (oh no!) and I'm sure I've lost about 2 kilos ;-)

Here is a picture of the rain, of which there has been no shortage: This is looking out Mel's front window in Richmond, I love the Mary Poppins style rooftops.

Last Sunday we went to Hyde Park to watch Daniel participate in 'Run London', a 10k mini marathon through the park. There were thousands of people, you can see some of the runners here on the other side of the Serpentine:And the glorious finish (bit blurry sorry, action shot). Apparantly Neil and I are signing up for next year...Neil's new job is in Tower Hill - right near the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. It's an awesome area, architecturally striking new buldings mingled with stunning ancient masterpieces. When he went in to sign his contract the other day we had a wander around the tower and were lucky enough to be on the bridge when it opened to let a sailing ship through - apparantly that only happens a couple of times per week.

View up the Thames from Tower Bridge :

The Bridge opening:
And the boat going through:I have also landed a new job: at Stash Yarns in Putney. It was always my ambition to do something like this part time while I am here. Although the hours are not optimal - they were offering four days per week which only leaves me one for teaching - I am very excited about it as it gives me the opportunity to get into the writing and designing I've been wanting to find time for for ages. Who knows, it might be a successful career change. I love teaching but have been trying to think of something to move into when I leave work to have kids.

Haven't had any news yet about our flat (we have applied for one in Bayswater) but hope to hear tomorrow or Tuesday. Neil and I both start working tomorrow so we'd like to be settled ASAP.

News next week to let you know how work went and (hopefully) all about the new flat.

Ciao, Diane

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Paris closed...

... so we went to Cambridge instead.

Apparantly you can get to Paris at very short notice if you are prepared to pay about £260 each for fares. We'll be going later in the month.

Cambridge was absolutely stunning. We took a train from King's Cross which turned out to be an express and took only 45 to reach Cambridge. It was pouring with rain of course but a nice bus driver directed us to a hotel near the station and then we walked into town.

We'd been advised to hire bikes, and it is obviously the thing to to in Cambridge as there are hundreds available, but we fond we enjoyed the experience on foot. We comfortably walked everywhere in the main part of town and in and out from our hotel.

On Thursday we just wandered around and shopped a bit, there was a market in the town centre and we discovered a lovely little tea shop where I fell for a cat mug and some belgian chocolate. We had pits in a litle pub near the river, saw King's College and bought tickts for a local production of Twelfth Night which we thoroughly enjoyed that night.

On Friday it poured again but we managed to squelch our way to Trinity College and the Round Church. After lunch at a very posh French Restaurant we spent some hours escaping the weather in the Fitzwilliam Museum which was stunning. My Favourite painting was Monet's 'Springtime' and Neil recommends a look at the extensive weaponry display.

In the afternoon we went to Evensong at King's College Chapel which was quite an experience. There were loads of tourists there. I chatted with the choral director after the service, he was very nice and said I should have no trouble finding a choir in London.

We caught a train back to London after the service and arrived home rather footsore but with definite plans to return often.

For all the photos, click on the link at the side.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Coming to you LIVE from Rainy London!

Hello everybody *waves from the other side of the world*

The flight was uneventful: my ipod saved me from eternal boredom and saved Neil from me ;-)

Mel and Dan met us at Heathrow early Sunday morning and I fell in love with London on the way home in the car. Richmond is BEAUTIFUL. It is the perfect match to the picture of London this british-literature-raised girl has in her head. It is a bit far out of town though for us, so we are looking at places to rent a bit closer in.

Monday we met up with Kate and went shopping. Imagine twenty Burke St malls end to end with about 100 times the people and you have Oxford street. It was awesome! We had to get Neil suits and shoes for his interview on Tuesday, visit my teaching agency (who then sent us to the bank to set up accounts) and check out the area Neil was heading for in the morning (Tower Hill - gorgeous) so we wouldn't get lost. We ended up getting home at about 7pm very tired and footsore but with a reasonable understanding of the tube system and a bit of a grasp of London geography.

On Tuesday Neil had his interview with Barclay's Bank and was offered a job within a few hours! With that everything is falling into place and we can start moving on things like budgets, travel and finding somewhere to live.

We really haven't done anything touristy yet I'm sorry and there are no photos until I get my laptop going, but bear with us - this blog will become more interesting I promise :-D

We're off to Paris tomorrow for a couple of days, will let you know how it goes (yeah, I know, it's a hard life, hehe)

Ciao!