Okay, just a short wee post today letting you know why there haven't been too many posts recently. We've now started work in Warwick (which is great by the way) and I'll tell you all about that later on. But not much posting is going on since we don't have a reliable internet source. Right now I'm at the Library but I can usually only get about 15mins interent time which isn't really enough to do everything in. We'll be getting a brand new laptop next week though and so we'll have all the internet time in the world. So until then, don't expect to hear too much from us.
News that we need to blog about:
* Lymington
* Christening of twins
* Warwick
* New Jobs
* Warwick Castle
* Out on the town
* and much much more in the exciting new installment...
So goodbye for now as I'm just about to run out of internet time...
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Friday, 22 August 2008
Burleigh Burghley House
My Auntie suggested that we go to Stamford for the day just before we left Cambridge. Gem wasn't that enthusiastic because we needed to catch a train there and back and we didn't have a clear idea where or what Stamford actually was. She almost convinced me into not going at all but we had already seen most of what there is to see in Cambridge (short of going into each and every college) so we did end up hopping on the train. Stamford turned out to be a cute wee town that is apparently England's finest stone town. The reason for this is not due to any one building but because pretty much all of the town is constructed out of the same type of brick giving it a lovely consistency (it sounds like I'm talking about cake or something doesn't it?).
We headed out to Burghley House which was about 2 miles from the town centre and its a lovely state home. Its very impressive looming up as you walk up the drive and it is massive (it has over 200 rooms!). The walk through the house was really cool and they gave you a wee pamphlet called the 'Burghley Code' (due to filming of the DaVinci Code there) which had little things to work out in each room and a code to figure out (quite fun, at least for me). There was also a funny dry moat around the house which Gem told me was called a 'haha'. I then had much fun saying 'haha' for the rest of the day.
They also had a Garden of Surprise there which turned out to be a fun courtyard/garden which had fountains and water spouts all over the place. There were lots of kids in togs running around through the water curtains but we tried to stay high and try. There was no hedge maze but we did go through a mirror maze where we got thoroughly confused.
We headed out to Burghley House which was about 2 miles from the town centre and its a lovely state home. Its very impressive looming up as you walk up the drive and it is massive (it has over 200 rooms!). The walk through the house was really cool and they gave you a wee pamphlet called the 'Burghley Code' (due to filming of the DaVinci Code there) which had little things to work out in each room and a code to figure out (quite fun, at least for me). There was also a funny dry moat around the house which Gem told me was called a 'haha'. I then had much fun saying 'haha' for the rest of the day.
They also had a Garden of Surprise there which turned out to be a fun courtyard/garden which had fountains and water spouts all over the place. There were lots of kids in togs running around through the water curtains but we tried to stay high and try. There was no hedge maze but we did go through a mirror maze where we got thoroughly confused.
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
College!
So Chloe kinda warmed up to us over the weekend. She actually sat on our laps without crying on Monday morning just before we were about to leave. But she seemed to be in a much better mood just after she had a big sleep. Didn't do too much sightseeing over the weekend, just went to Camden Market in the rain, which was pretty cool. Heaps of fun stalls and lots of people with umbrellas dripping everywhere. We picked up some 2nd hand books and bought a little light shade thing for our new room in Warwick. And some fudge and ate some icecream on a massive biscuit (Yes thats on a biscuit, no cone involved).
Right now we're in Cambridge and it is pouring with rain. But we've had a couple of good days where we've looked through some of the famous Cambridge Colleges. King's College Chapel was of course the most impressive and the King's Glass (the stained glass windows) are spectacular. Didn't managed to go into Christ's College because they aren't letting visitors in at the moment. Will have to come back and have a look around after the summer is over. We also went on a guided punting trip down the Cam and looked at the backs of all the colleges and the pretty bridges. We didn't try punting ourselves, I'm sure that would have resulted in people falling into the river. Even so we saw a fair few punt traffic jams because of gammy tourists. Even saw one guy lose his pushy-stick (Yes that is obviously the technical word).
We are staying with my Auntie in Cambridge and she own two chinese restaurants here and she is feeding us very well. She insists that we try lots of dishes and eat lots and so by the time we leave here we will each be the size of a house!
Until next time.
Love Us.
Right now we're in Cambridge and it is pouring with rain. But we've had a couple of good days where we've looked through some of the famous Cambridge Colleges. King's College Chapel was of course the most impressive and the King's Glass (the stained glass windows) are spectacular. Didn't managed to go into Christ's College because they aren't letting visitors in at the moment. Will have to come back and have a look around after the summer is over. We also went on a guided punting trip down the Cam and looked at the backs of all the colleges and the pretty bridges. We didn't try punting ourselves, I'm sure that would have resulted in people falling into the river. Even so we saw a fair few punt traffic jams because of gammy tourists. Even saw one guy lose his pushy-stick (Yes that is obviously the technical word).
We are staying with my Auntie in Cambridge and she own two chinese restaurants here and she is feeding us very well. She insists that we try lots of dishes and eat lots and so by the time we leave here we will each be the size of a house!
Until next time.
Love Us.
Friday, 8 August 2008
Westminster Abbey
Well we headed back to Westminster Abbey this morning and its a much different place when its filled to the brim with tourists. Just moving through the crowd you can hear a babble of audioguides handing out information in a multitude of different languages. It seems strange how something that seems very quiet and solemn during Sunday services can quickly change into such a tourist site.
We managed to get onto one of the small Verger led tours which I would have to recommend to anyone who goes there. The cost to get into Westminster is pretty steep (comparably) at £12 but the £3 guided tour in itself more than makes up for the high entry cost. The Verger who took us around was absolutely awesome. Sarah S, if you're reading this, I think he was the funny one you were telling us about (with the flags). He was really really informative and he was very lighthearted, telling funny jokes all the time so it keep all the history much more engaging. He started off with just a small British flag which he held up so that we could easily follow him through the crowds. But after he had worked out where each of us had come from he managed to get hold of a flag for America, Australia, and New Zealand so that he was leading us around with four flags, representing the members of the tour group.
We're now out of the hostel and staying with my cousins Yean Hong and Julian for the weekend. Their baby Chloe is still very cute but she cries whenever someone other than her mother holds her (We must be very scary people). We'll have to see if she warms to us by the end of the weekend.
PS: Wasn't the Olympic opening ceremony quite spectacular?
We managed to get onto one of the small Verger led tours which I would have to recommend to anyone who goes there. The cost to get into Westminster is pretty steep (comparably) at £12 but the £3 guided tour in itself more than makes up for the high entry cost. The Verger who took us around was absolutely awesome. Sarah S, if you're reading this, I think he was the funny one you were telling us about (with the flags). He was really really informative and he was very lighthearted, telling funny jokes all the time so it keep all the history much more engaging. He started off with just a small British flag which he held up so that we could easily follow him through the crowds. But after he had worked out where each of us had come from he managed to get hold of a flag for America, Australia, and New Zealand so that he was leading us around with four flags, representing the members of the tour group.
We're now out of the hostel and staying with my cousins Yean Hong and Julian for the weekend. Their baby Chloe is still very cute but she cries whenever someone other than her mother holds her (We must be very scary people). We'll have to see if she warms to us by the end of the weekend.
PS: Wasn't the Olympic opening ceremony quite spectacular?
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Disaster
I had a real muck up today. With all the new bank accounts and pin numbers we've gotten I got the new UK pin numbers confused with my NZ one. So when I tried to get some money out of the whole in the wall I put in the wrong one several times and it ate my card!!! DOH!!! Luckily we can still use Gem's card otherwise we'd be in some serious trouble.
ooo we got a Job!!!
So news flash time.
We have now got a live in hotel job in Warwick. We headed up there on Tuesday to have a look around and meet the manager (who was really nice) and have an casual interview. The hotel is really nice and there is a wee flat out the back where we can live. For those who don't know where Warwick is (and I assume that means pretty much all of you) its a wee town between Birmingham and Oxford (and so northwestish of London). Oh and by the way its pronounced Warick without the 2nd 'W'. Warwick has a castle (doesn't every english town?) and is near Stratford on Avon so there will be heaps of things to do on our days off. Gem will get to do some reception work as well as bar/wait and I will be doing bar/wait aswell and sometimes a night shift. I think the morning shifts might be a bit of a challenge for me since they start at quarter to seven in the morning!
In touristland we have been to a couple more museums (Natural History and Science Museums) and we went to Madame Tussauds today. The Natural History museum was really cool with lots of interesting exhibits. The dinosaurs is the most popular with heaps of bones and models. After we went through the queue to get in had grown all the way through the central hall and was a 45minute wait! We listened to a live presentation on Martian meteorites which was way more scientifically orientated than Gem thought (she thought it would be filled with kids). Gem's favourite bit (and mine too) was the ant farm. They had leafcutter ants in a big glass tank and we watched them busily cutting leaves and carting them back (across a wee stick bridge over water) to their colony. We probably sat there for about half an hour just watching them. We watched them all trying to cut up a big stick and watching them all work toghether, it was really funny.
We saw lots of famous people in Madame Tussauds and Gem even got her picture with the Queen!!! (photo will be up soon). There was a wax figure of a tourist taking a photo and whenever I saw it I kept reflexivly moving out of her picture. They had a scary bit downstairs where actors would leap out of the shadows and scare you and I'm not sure how it all related to wax figures but anyway...
Ooh totally forgot. After we got back from Warwick we managed to get some late tickets to Spamalot (musical of Monty Python's Holy Grail). It was fantastically hilarious. We laughed the whole way through and are still chuckling about it now.
You might think that things have gone perfectly this holiday but we've had a bit of a fiasco this week. We've had bugs in our beds at the hostel and been bitten all over. They're real itchy!!! The hostel have been real good about it and have sprayed the room yesterday but this morning the other people in the room found some more so they've sprayed it again today. Hopefully that will solve it.
So thats all for now.
Love Us.
We have now got a live in hotel job in Warwick. We headed up there on Tuesday to have a look around and meet the manager (who was really nice) and have an casual interview. The hotel is really nice and there is a wee flat out the back where we can live. For those who don't know where Warwick is (and I assume that means pretty much all of you) its a wee town between Birmingham and Oxford (and so northwestish of London). Oh and by the way its pronounced Warick without the 2nd 'W'. Warwick has a castle (doesn't every english town?) and is near Stratford on Avon so there will be heaps of things to do on our days off. Gem will get to do some reception work as well as bar/wait and I will be doing bar/wait aswell and sometimes a night shift. I think the morning shifts might be a bit of a challenge for me since they start at quarter to seven in the morning!
In touristland we have been to a couple more museums (Natural History and Science Museums) and we went to Madame Tussauds today. The Natural History museum was really cool with lots of interesting exhibits. The dinosaurs is the most popular with heaps of bones and models. After we went through the queue to get in had grown all the way through the central hall and was a 45minute wait! We listened to a live presentation on Martian meteorites which was way more scientifically orientated than Gem thought (she thought it would be filled with kids). Gem's favourite bit (and mine too) was the ant farm. They had leafcutter ants in a big glass tank and we watched them busily cutting leaves and carting them back (across a wee stick bridge over water) to their colony. We probably sat there for about half an hour just watching them. We watched them all trying to cut up a big stick and watching them all work toghether, it was really funny.
We saw lots of famous people in Madame Tussauds and Gem even got her picture with the Queen!!! (photo will be up soon). There was a wax figure of a tourist taking a photo and whenever I saw it I kept reflexivly moving out of her picture. They had a scary bit downstairs where actors would leap out of the shadows and scare you and I'm not sure how it all related to wax figures but anyway...
Ooh totally forgot. After we got back from Warwick we managed to get some late tickets to Spamalot (musical of Monty Python's Holy Grail). It was fantastically hilarious. We laughed the whole way through and are still chuckling about it now.
You might think that things have gone perfectly this holiday but we've had a bit of a fiasco this week. We've had bugs in our beds at the hostel and been bitten all over. They're real itchy!!! The hostel have been real good about it and have sprayed the room yesterday but this morning the other people in the room found some more so they've sprayed it again today. Hopefully that will solve it.
So thats all for now.
Love Us.
Monday, 4 August 2008
Meusum Muesum Museum Overload
Okay where were we last? Oh yes, in Scotland. Were we in Stirling? Did we talk about Stirling Castle yet? No, okay.
Stirling Castle was pretty cool. It was kinda like Hampden Court Palace but for the Stuart Kings of Scotland rather than the Tudors of England. The great hall also reminds me of Hampden Court because their both big grand halls and the one at Stirling is the biggest of its kind in Scotland. They completely restored it by building a whole new roof because the army used it as a barracks for the last few hundred years. In the Chapel Royal (built specially for the baptism of Prince Henry the prince of wales at the time) they have three brand new tapestries from the Hunt for the Unicorn series. They're really brightly coloured and vibrant, especially compared with the old decrepid tapestries you see everywhere else. There is a tapestry studio on site where they are hand weaving the next panel in the series (7 panels in all) and they're not going to be done until 2011 (or something).
We almost had haggis the night before, but it was not meant to be. We had psyched ourselves up and were all ready to share a haggis starter at a haunted pub (yes that's right, haunted, as in with ghosts). But when we came to order they were all out of haggis!!! Must be a popular dish! I (Jeremy) had a burger instead and when it came it was absolutely massive. The meat pattie was the same diameter as a normal one but it was pretty much as thick as it was wide! I should've taken a photo but, alas, we didn't have the camera with us. Otherwise we'd be one of those tourists that take photos of their food.
So that ended our great Scotland adventure. We're now back in London and totally exhausted after a day at the British Museum (got the spelling right that time). We didn't even managed to see half of the galleries! We got a guided tour which was so worth it, but the guide took us through maybe a dozen rooms and the tour lasted 90minutes!!! We saw the Parthenon scuptures, Egyption mummies, the Lewis chess set (from Harry Potter, you know, when they play life size Wizard's Chess), plus a million other things that we can't even remember. We saw heaps of Egyption stone statues and Greek pots, roman mosiacs, celtic artefacts and much much more. We'll have to go back and I think we'll make it a point to do the British Musuem every time we're in London. Maybe in a years time we'll have seen most of it.
Last night we managed to catch a special service at Westminster Abbey. It was special because we got to see Sarah singing in her Wellington Choir which was visiting the abbey. We went out for a drink at a pub and then dinner after and it was great to catch up with her.
Ooh, ooh, almost forgot. Before seeing Sarah we went to Hamley's a giant giant toystore. It was really cool (since we obviously haven't grown up) and had 4 floors (and a basement) filled with all sorts of toys. They even had a 'Make your own Teddy Bear' thing. We wanted to buy lots of stuff be we can't really afford to lug any more stuff around on our backs. Our packs already weigh a tonne.
Okay, thats all for now folks.
Stirling Castle was pretty cool. It was kinda like Hampden Court Palace but for the Stuart Kings of Scotland rather than the Tudors of England. The great hall also reminds me of Hampden Court because their both big grand halls and the one at Stirling is the biggest of its kind in Scotland. They completely restored it by building a whole new roof because the army used it as a barracks for the last few hundred years. In the Chapel Royal (built specially for the baptism of Prince Henry the prince of wales at the time) they have three brand new tapestries from the Hunt for the Unicorn series. They're really brightly coloured and vibrant, especially compared with the old decrepid tapestries you see everywhere else. There is a tapestry studio on site where they are hand weaving the next panel in the series (7 panels in all) and they're not going to be done until 2011 (or something).
We almost had haggis the night before, but it was not meant to be. We had psyched ourselves up and were all ready to share a haggis starter at a haunted pub (yes that's right, haunted, as in with ghosts). But when we came to order they were all out of haggis!!! Must be a popular dish! I (Jeremy) had a burger instead and when it came it was absolutely massive. The meat pattie was the same diameter as a normal one but it was pretty much as thick as it was wide! I should've taken a photo but, alas, we didn't have the camera with us. Otherwise we'd be one of those tourists that take photos of their food.
So that ended our great Scotland adventure. We're now back in London and totally exhausted after a day at the British Museum (got the spelling right that time). We didn't even managed to see half of the galleries! We got a guided tour which was so worth it, but the guide took us through maybe a dozen rooms and the tour lasted 90minutes!!! We saw the Parthenon scuptures, Egyption mummies, the Lewis chess set (from Harry Potter, you know, when they play life size Wizard's Chess), plus a million other things that we can't even remember. We saw heaps of Egyption stone statues and Greek pots, roman mosiacs, celtic artefacts and much much more. We'll have to go back and I think we'll make it a point to do the British Musuem every time we're in London. Maybe in a years time we'll have seen most of it.
Last night we managed to catch a special service at Westminster Abbey. It was special because we got to see Sarah singing in her Wellington Choir which was visiting the abbey. We went out for a drink at a pub and then dinner after and it was great to catch up with her.
Ooh, ooh, almost forgot. Before seeing Sarah we went to Hamley's a giant giant toystore. It was really cool (since we obviously haven't grown up) and had 4 floors (and a basement) filled with all sorts of toys. They even had a 'Make your own Teddy Bear' thing. We wanted to buy lots of stuff be we can't really afford to lug any more stuff around on our backs. Our packs already weigh a tonne.
Okay, thats all for now folks.
Friday, 1 August 2008
Big tree and more in this exciting episode
Okay, so we've spend a few days chilling out in Pitlochry. Elaine has been so nice letting us stay here while we figure out what our next move is going to be. While we've been here we've been down to Dunkeld/Birnam and seen the Birnam Oak. It also has a Shakespeare connection as its the last tree that was part of the Birnam Forest which attacked at the end of 'MacBeth'. It was a massive sprawling tree which had branches that needed to be propped up with massive crutches. We also went to Dunkeld Cathedral and saw a lady 'ringing the bells'. She had a whole range of different bells which rang at different notes and she played a lovely version of Amazing Grace for us. It looked amazing (oops pun not intended) as she picked up each bell and rang it while picking up the next while still sounding the first and so on. Really spectacular and worth going to see.
We went to Edradour distillary which is the smallest distillary in Scotland. They only make 15 barrels a week of the finest single malt whiskey. We had a wee taste but straight whiskey really isn't my thing.
As of right now we're in Stirling and we just went to the William Wallace monumnet (you know... Braveheart). Its a great big spire with a spiral staircase (246 steps!!). Spectacular views at the top though which make the climb worth it.
Tomorrow we've got a mammoth train ride down to London again so that we can catch up with Sarah while she's on choir tour. I'm so looking forward to the train...NOT!
Ooh, almost forgot. We're on the job hunting scene at the moment, looking for some live-in hotel work. One of the likely ones is in Warwick but doesnt' start til mid-September. But we're enjoying traveling so much (and blogging about it) that we might just keep traveling for the next 6 weeks and worry about work then! Other possibilities are in Bath or in Bornemouth or around the southern England area. We'll keep you all posted as soon as we get something more concrete. And we'll get you our address so you can send us post (because we know you're dying to send us care packagaes!!!). Anyone who wants post from us (postcards) should email us their address (and keep a keen eye on their letterbox).
TTFN (Ta ta for now)
We went to Edradour distillary which is the smallest distillary in Scotland. They only make 15 barrels a week of the finest single malt whiskey. We had a wee taste but straight whiskey really isn't my thing.
As of right now we're in Stirling and we just went to the William Wallace monumnet (you know... Braveheart). Its a great big spire with a spiral staircase (246 steps!!). Spectacular views at the top though which make the climb worth it.
Tomorrow we've got a mammoth train ride down to London again so that we can catch up with Sarah while she's on choir tour. I'm so looking forward to the train...NOT!
Ooh, almost forgot. We're on the job hunting scene at the moment, looking for some live-in hotel work. One of the likely ones is in Warwick but doesnt' start til mid-September. But we're enjoying traveling so much (and blogging about it) that we might just keep traveling for the next 6 weeks and worry about work then! Other possibilities are in Bath or in Bornemouth or around the southern England area. We'll keep you all posted as soon as we get something more concrete. And we'll get you our address so you can send us post (because we know you're dying to send us care packagaes!!!). Anyone who wants post from us (postcards) should email us their address (and keep a keen eye on their letterbox).
TTFN (Ta ta for now)
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