Just as i sit here surfing, the shift manager has come in to tell me that we do have a booking- but at another hotel with almost the same name!!!! He had phoned the company ,not ebooker, whi deals with booking in NZ ,to find that ebooker had given us the wrongaddress . But the good news is ,that they are the same company ,and they have had 2 cancellations, so we can stay!! Thanks to someone upstairs..
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Look out NZ! We have arrived!
Chelmsford to Auckland – update Wed 5th Jan 2005
A lot has happened since the last entry on Sunday.
We are sat in The New President Hotel central Auckland. It is 5.30 am and Chantelle and I have been up since 3.30. That must be the jet lag. Feel a lot better than yesterday- when dazed and confused about summed it up. It was a LONG journey with long periods of low-level stress whilst sat on the 2 planes alternated with short periods of higher stress, at Heathrow (horrible – don’t park on the top level of T3 short stay- the view is not compensated for by the wait for poxy little lift – but it was a good idea Nick!). Heathrow and Auckland were both heaving, Hong Kong lovely and spacious and quiet.
Cathay Pacific seemed a good airline to go with, the crew were always helpful and polite even when I kept the help button by mistake. They looked after the boys well. Food was tasty and plentiful with fresh fruit or a salad at every meal.
In-flight entertainment has moved on since my last international flight (20 years ago). Little screens in front of every seat with controls on the armrest. I caught up with some films “Motorcycle Diaries” (perhaps better on a bigger screen but ok), “Minority Report” (great idea), “Wimbledon” (predictable but oddly stirring to imagine a Brit actually winning Wimbledon). Played chess – easy to beat computer even on “hard” level. Favourite for lots of people was “Airshow” - a real time series of screens showing flight data : global and local maps of current position, altitude, distance travelled, airspeed etc. What was weird on the approach to HK was that hardly any of the window blinds were up even as we went over the Urals and Chinese mountains. Reminded me of going to the races at Newmarket where everyone watched the huge screen in front of the stand rather than the horses that were thundering towards us.
Other memorable bits of the journey were: Paddy sleeping half on and off his seat, passing over Oz - we had window seats by now and could see the coast 37,000 feet below, Eric being awake for the whole of the first leg, bloke trying to squeeze into overcrowded lift at Heathrow, shop at HK called “Fook Ming Tong” ( can a Cantonese speaker translate it into English?).
We were denied an aerial view of Kataia as we overflew it, being on the wrong side of plane and cloud cover was thick even when we were over land on our side. Nz is not called “Land of the long white cloud” for no reason. Boys were “wickeding” like crazy as we came through the clouds and could see the city and harbours.
Talking of boys - how are they adapting? Eric and Patrick are doing well, E seems happy to be here and is looking forward to a more active life. He has decided to get some weights so he can start working out; following brother Walt’s advice. Paddy is going along with the flow seeking his thrills in every moment. Stuart seems a bit more bothered. He has been moaning a lot, arguing that NZ is not as good as UK for this and that reason. (eg pointing out bits of litter when the rest of us are marvelling at the cleanliness of the streets.) I think he is missing his home comforts, stability and Matty.
Cannot finish this without a big thanks to Colin and Heather who fought through the crowds to pick us up at the airport. We had tea and cake on their “dick” (deck) listening to cicadas and trying to talk in a civilised fashion, whilst stopping the boys from trashing the joint. They then drove us right into town to our hotel, what a pair of stars!
Should also mention that we were not too impressed that the hotel were not expecting us and could only put us up for 1 night. Mind you it would have been a lot worse if they had been full last night. E-bookers failed us on that one and shall be hearing about it.
Current plans for today are to go shopping for essentials (SIM card, sunglasses, bird id guide etc) then find a room for the night and do some sight seeing.
A lot has happened since the last entry on Sunday.
We are sat in The New President Hotel central Auckland. It is 5.30 am and Chantelle and I have been up since 3.30. That must be the jet lag. Feel a lot better than yesterday- when dazed and confused about summed it up. It was a LONG journey with long periods of low-level stress whilst sat on the 2 planes alternated with short periods of higher stress, at Heathrow (horrible – don’t park on the top level of T3 short stay- the view is not compensated for by the wait for poxy little lift – but it was a good idea Nick!). Heathrow and Auckland were both heaving, Hong Kong lovely and spacious and quiet.
Cathay Pacific seemed a good airline to go with, the crew were always helpful and polite even when I kept the help button by mistake. They looked after the boys well. Food was tasty and plentiful with fresh fruit or a salad at every meal.
In-flight entertainment has moved on since my last international flight (20 years ago). Little screens in front of every seat with controls on the armrest. I caught up with some films “Motorcycle Diaries” (perhaps better on a bigger screen but ok), “Minority Report” (great idea), “Wimbledon” (predictable but oddly stirring to imagine a Brit actually winning Wimbledon). Played chess – easy to beat computer even on “hard” level. Favourite for lots of people was “Airshow” - a real time series of screens showing flight data : global and local maps of current position, altitude, distance travelled, airspeed etc. What was weird on the approach to HK was that hardly any of the window blinds were up even as we went over the Urals and Chinese mountains. Reminded me of going to the races at Newmarket where everyone watched the huge screen in front of the stand rather than the horses that were thundering towards us.
Other memorable bits of the journey were: Paddy sleeping half on and off his seat, passing over Oz - we had window seats by now and could see the coast 37,000 feet below, Eric being awake for the whole of the first leg, bloke trying to squeeze into overcrowded lift at Heathrow, shop at HK called “Fook Ming Tong” ( can a Cantonese speaker translate it into English?).
We were denied an aerial view of Kataia as we overflew it, being on the wrong side of plane and cloud cover was thick even when we were over land on our side. Nz is not called “Land of the long white cloud” for no reason. Boys were “wickeding” like crazy as we came through the clouds and could see the city and harbours.
Talking of boys - how are they adapting? Eric and Patrick are doing well, E seems happy to be here and is looking forward to a more active life. He has decided to get some weights so he can start working out; following brother Walt’s advice. Paddy is going along with the flow seeking his thrills in every moment. Stuart seems a bit more bothered. He has been moaning a lot, arguing that NZ is not as good as UK for this and that reason. (eg pointing out bits of litter when the rest of us are marvelling at the cleanliness of the streets.) I think he is missing his home comforts, stability and Matty.
Cannot finish this without a big thanks to Colin and Heather who fought through the crowds to pick us up at the airport. We had tea and cake on their “dick” (deck) listening to cicadas and trying to talk in a civilised fashion, whilst stopping the boys from trashing the joint. They then drove us right into town to our hotel, what a pair of stars!
Should also mention that we were not too impressed that the hotel were not expecting us and could only put us up for 1 night. Mind you it would have been a lot worse if they had been full last night. E-bookers failed us on that one and shall be hearing about it.
Current plans for today are to go shopping for essentials (SIM card, sunglasses, bird id guide etc) then find a room for the night and do some sight seeing.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
New Years Day
OK - so it looks like we can't do pictures at the moment, not until our computer is connected. In the meantime we can post text from any computer, so you will have to make do with that.
It is windy, dark and raining in Chelmsford UK. We are all chilling out at Karla and Nick's house before we go out for a Chinese.
As Chantelle pointed out this afternoon, we are eating in a Chinese tonight and flying over the country tomorrow night.
Time is warping quite markedly for me, pretty much since we left Lancaster, as in slowly down.
We blew out the cobwebs in Southend with a blustery walk along the front tody. Thames estuary on one side and lots of people and cars on the other. Plenty of stuff to keep the little'uns amused, an amusement park, sand , doughnuts.
I was surprised to see small flocks of turnstones raiding scraps of food off the pavement, mixing in with pigeons at one point. I have never seen feral turnstones before! Even better were the wateredge flocks of sanderling. Haven't seen these for several years.
Wake up those of you who don't know your sparrows from your starlings.
Today does not feel like New Years Day! It seems like arrival in Auckland should be New Years Day. Anyway it isn't, so best wishes to all our readers, with their hopes and dreams.
Final thing: if you have a New Testament check out James 5 v15. It is where the book fell open on me today. An omen or what?
It is windy, dark and raining in Chelmsford UK. We are all chilling out at Karla and Nick's house before we go out for a Chinese.
As Chantelle pointed out this afternoon, we are eating in a Chinese tonight and flying over the country tomorrow night.
Time is warping quite markedly for me, pretty much since we left Lancaster, as in slowly down.
We blew out the cobwebs in Southend with a blustery walk along the front tody. Thames estuary on one side and lots of people and cars on the other. Plenty of stuff to keep the little'uns amused, an amusement park, sand , doughnuts.
I was surprised to see small flocks of turnstones raiding scraps of food off the pavement, mixing in with pigeons at one point. I have never seen feral turnstones before! Even better were the wateredge flocks of sanderling. Haven't seen these for several years.
Wake up those of you who don't know your sparrows from your starlings.
Today does not feel like New Years Day! It seems like arrival in Auckland should be New Years Day. Anyway it isn't, so best wishes to all our readers, with their hopes and dreams.
Final thing: if you have a New Testament check out James 5 v15. It is where the book fell open on me today. An omen or what?
Friday, December 31, 2004
Thursday 30th December
Spent the day in Cambridge. Had plenty of time so took a detour down the backs. What a trip down memory lane! Not much seems to have changed this side of town. Picture to follow if it is taechnically feasible from F-in-law's computer. Much more change away from the hallowed precincts of the University. Huge new development down Hills Road where the Cattle Market used to be.
Parkside has modernised since I last swam there (15 years ago?). It used to be a squalid dank place with a viewing gallery covered in ketchup and discarded chips. Now it is all light pine and windows with a cafe that promotes healthy eating (crisps were Walkers Lite rather than full fat!) and even Fairtrade on offer if you asked.
Walter turned up and we swam. I entrusted my life to the green flume and it was like a nightmare I used to have as a kid. Falling down stairs. Quite exhilarating to hit the water at the bottom, but once was enough. Stuart asked me to go on the more sedate blue flume. I did it because he asked. He was looking a bit worried as we climbed up more and more steps. WE went for it - in a way it was worse because we were on an inflatable and my legs were bouncing off the walls. Walter told me how a woman had broken her neck in it when he was there one time. After that the boys went up and down, up and down ..... while I retreated to the reassuring 20 lengths in the slow circuit.
We went to Pizza Hut just over Parker's Piece. Eric and Stuart made out that they never do anything nice by sincerely thanking me virtually every mouthful. Walter gave them both advice on how to get on in life. Eric seemed to be taking it on board.
If the pictures appear it worked. If not you will have to wait and rely on my prose.
Parkside has modernised since I last swam there (15 years ago?). It used to be a squalid dank place with a viewing gallery covered in ketchup and discarded chips. Now it is all light pine and windows with a cafe that promotes healthy eating (crisps were Walkers Lite rather than full fat!) and even Fairtrade on offer if you asked.
Walter turned up and we swam. I entrusted my life to the green flume and it was like a nightmare I used to have as a kid. Falling down stairs. Quite exhilarating to hit the water at the bottom, but once was enough. Stuart asked me to go on the more sedate blue flume. I did it because he asked. He was looking a bit worried as we climbed up more and more steps. WE went for it - in a way it was worse because we were on an inflatable and my legs were bouncing off the walls. Walter told me how a woman had broken her neck in it when he was there one time. After that the boys went up and down, up and down ..... while I retreated to the reassuring 20 lengths in the slow circuit.
We went to Pizza Hut just over Parker's Piece. Eric and Stuart made out that they never do anything nice by sincerely thanking me virtually every mouthful. Walter gave them both advice on how to get on in life. Eric seemed to be taking it on board.
If the pictures appear it worked. If not you will have to wait and rely on my prose.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Wednesday 29th December
We are now all in Stretham!
Ma and pa are reunited with the boys. All I can say is that it has been very peaceful for the last few days! It has been busy too. Clearing out the rental house took all day yesterday and I thought it was going to be fast. The extra time was mostly because we were trying to re-house as much of the stuff as we could rather than taking it all to the skip.
Various callers were given boxes of stuff. The skulls headed for Scotland en route to Patrick via Gerard and Vanya. The Fortnums mince-pies were scrummy btw!
Steve got the antique saws, and the rest of our logs. Thanks for helping with the washing machine etc.
Despite our best intentions a lot of stuff was tipped. A lot of the reason for this is that matching up our surplus with someone else's need is time consuming and we were short on time.
We finally finished at about 6 washing machine was last to go.
Thanks Fran for putting us up for our last night in town. The NIce and Spicy was excellent and your hospitality was most appreciated.
This morning the bloke in Moorgate news sold me a paper and said "see you" as I left. I felt like replying "Maybe in 10 years time!" but it was not really necessary. It was nice to think it though.
Ma and pa are reunited with the boys. All I can say is that it has been very peaceful for the last few days! It has been busy too. Clearing out the rental house took all day yesterday and I thought it was going to be fast. The extra time was mostly because we were trying to re-house as much of the stuff as we could rather than taking it all to the skip.
Various callers were given boxes of stuff. The skulls headed for Scotland en route to Patrick via Gerard and Vanya. The Fortnums mince-pies were scrummy btw!
Steve got the antique saws, and the rest of our logs. Thanks for helping with the washing machine etc.
Despite our best intentions a lot of stuff was tipped. A lot of the reason for this is that matching up our surplus with someone else's need is time consuming and we were short on time.
We finally finished at about 6 washing machine was last to go.
Thanks Fran for putting us up for our last night in town. The NIce and Spicy was excellent and your hospitality was most appreciated.
This morning the bloke in Moorgate news sold me a paper and said "see you" as I left. I felt like replying "Maybe in 10 years time!" but it was not really necessary. It was nice to think it though.
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Friday, December 24, 2004
Last day at school
Yesterday was my last day at school! I felt a mixture of relief at finally finishing and a touch of sadness at moving on from many friends. Many of the pupils said nice things to me, and were sad that I was going. Thanks for that! The job has been much more rewarding this term as I have been able to teach more and the control has been less of an issue. It is still nice to be appreciated.
We had a form "party" where the girls danced on the tables along with some of the boys. Two of the lads were very effective bouncers, which could have caused problems as they were trying to stop the Head from coming in!
Once all the detritus had been cleared up all the staff trooped down to Vida for "the drink". The moment I had been dreading arrived ... "the speech". Ann said some nice things about me and left out the embarrassing stories (thanks Ann!). My speech was short; so much so that I forgot to salute my colleagues who carry on doing a very difficult job. There you go, I have done it here!
I was delighted by the leaving presents of various classical CD's. It will take me hours to listen to them all. The birdsong CD is particularly excellent as it will remind me of many a long hour spent birding in this country.
If any of you do read this, then thanks for your support over the last few years. I will not forget my time at Collegiate. I have had some terrible times as I have learnt how to be a teacher. Overshadowing all that will be the the good times - the jokes and sense of community that is to me the best part of the school.
We had a form "party" where the girls danced on the tables along with some of the boys. Two of the lads were very effective bouncers, which could have caused problems as they were trying to stop the Head from coming in!
Once all the detritus had been cleared up all the staff trooped down to Vida for "the drink". The moment I had been dreading arrived ... "the speech". Ann said some nice things about me and left out the embarrassing stories (thanks Ann!). My speech was short; so much so that I forgot to salute my colleagues who carry on doing a very difficult job. There you go, I have done it here!
I was delighted by the leaving presents of various classical CD's. It will take me hours to listen to them all. The birdsong CD is particularly excellent as it will remind me of many a long hour spent birding in this country.
If any of you do read this, then thanks for your support over the last few years. I will not forget my time at Collegiate. I have had some terrible times as I have learnt how to be a teacher. Overshadowing all that will be the the good times - the jokes and sense of community that is to me the best part of the school.
Nothing better to do?
Nothing better to do on the evening of the 2nd of January??
Well you can follow the departure of the bryans on the below link.
This site enables you to see all the departures from Heathrow. It tells you when the flight is open,then boarding ,taxing ,and finally it's departure.
Our flight is CX254 to Hongkong at 21.55 , not the CX at 21.00
May it give you hours of fun viewing. Well it's got to be better than the crummy line up on T.V this year,eh..
http://www.baa.com/main/airports/heathrow/flight_information/flight_departures_frame.html
Well you can follow the departure of the bryans on the below link.
This site enables you to see all the departures from Heathrow. It tells you when the flight is open,then boarding ,taxing ,and finally it's departure.
Our flight is CX254 to Hongkong at 21.55 , not the CX at 21.00
May it give you hours of fun viewing. Well it's got to be better than the crummy line up on T.V this year,eh..
http://www.baa.com/main/airports/heathrow/flight_information/flight_departures_frame.html
Monday, December 20, 2004
2 weeks today
Just back from a cold walk round the historic sites of Lancaster with the boys. The oldest building in New Zealand dates back to 1840; the oldest building in Lancaster is the castle dated at c1200. We also looked at the Roman Bath House remains which were knocked down in 330 AD. At the Maritime museum Eric touched one of the slates which was on the bath roof.
We also stood under the tree that Queen Vic planted on her visit to the castle.
These remaining days sometimes feel like a scramble to do things for the last time.
Tick tock tick tock mark off another day.
School meal at Crows last night was jolly. Gemma enjoyed the music, Phil and Dave wereimpressed by the magician. Alan entertained us with his vocals.
Why do people not leave comments on these musings?
Please tell us if it is:
a) because there is nothing to comment on
b) because you cannot be bothered
c) because you don't know how to (no excuse! just click on comments at the bottom of this post)
d) because nobody reads this blog
I shall assume that if there are no comments, that d) applies.
We also stood under the tree that Queen Vic planted on her visit to the castle.
These remaining days sometimes feel like a scramble to do things for the last time.
Tick tock tick tock mark off another day.
School meal at Crows last night was jolly. Gemma enjoyed the music, Phil and Dave wereimpressed by the magician. Alan entertained us with his vocals.
Why do people not leave comments on these musings?
Please tell us if it is:
a) because there is nothing to comment on
b) because you cannot be bothered
c) because you don't know how to (no excuse! just click on comments at the bottom of this post)
d) because nobody reads this blog
I shall assume that if there are no comments, that d) applies.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Sunday, December 12, 2004
The foot saga....
After a week with out the plaster on, my foot is slowly begining to unfuse it's self. I have manged to have a couple of trips into town . The cruthes are a god send ,and when i think , "this is ok i shall try with out them 2 ,i almost fall flat on my face.
BUT the good new is ,is that i have returned to the driving seat, as the dominate and superior driver in the family.!!!
My aim, is to be on one crutch for christmas, we shall see. As long as it stops cramping up and refusing everytime i stop and sit for more than 10 minutes......................
3 weeks and counting.............................
Monday, December 06, 2004
The last time
Lots of things we are doing recently are accompanied by thoughts of "this is the last time I'll do this before we go". The sand is running through the hourglass ever faster and it is hard to decide which things we want to do one last time. Went for a few beers at the Waterwitch last night ... for the last time ... (probably). Went up Arnside Knott ... for the last time ... last weekend. Check out the pics. That area is one place I am very fond of.
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