Today we drove from London to Dover where we caught ferry to Calais. From there we drove through France and Belgium and into Amsterdam.

After freshening up at the hotel we took a canal ride which was entertaining. Then we took a stroll around the world famous Red Light District – an experience in itself! It’s been a long day and we’ve made some new friends but we are shattered so it’s time to call it a night.

This is a Wordle of this webpage…

Last night the snow started, and we woke up to a thick blanket of snow. Most of us couldn’t get to work as the Underground was suspended due to the “Adverse Weather Conditions”.

I’ve finally managed to find some time, in between working, drinking and watching Top Gear, to upload some pictures and write something!

If you didn’t know, which many won’t, we’ve moved flat.  Twice.  Anyway scroll down to  read about that.

Thames Barrier at first light

The Thames Flood Barrier is literally outside our window.  Wikipedia says “Located downstream of central London, the barrier’s purpose is to prevent London being flooded by an exceptionally high tide moving up from the sea, exacerbated by a storm surge. It only needs to be raised for the duration of the high tide; at low tide it can be opened to release water flowing down the Thames which backs up behind it.“

I’m intrigued by it though you can’t get that close to it, which is a shame.  I haven’t seen it in action yet, though as winter approaches, surely they’ll need to test it at least once.

I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t had a good chance to have a look around the park next to our flat, though there is a nice cafe there, and there are plenty of open spaces good for touch rugby or frisbee, and also plenty intimate pockets and trees for more laid back times.

View of Canary Wharf with the O2 Millenium Dome in front of it.

The building we are in has an observation deck on the top floor which has some fantastic views of Canary Wharf and East London.  There is also the Free Ferry that goes back and forth between the north and south sides of the Thames, as well as foot tunnel – as yet I am yet to try those, though they are a bit more east along the river.  The Thames Clipper Ferry also leaves just across the barrier which is a boat that goes all the way to Westminster, via Greenwich, Canary Wharf, Tower of London and the City.

Our lounge, and our 40 inch flatscreen TV!!!

The flat comes with it’s own 40″ HD TV – we couldn’t believe our luck.  Pasanka has hooked up his PC to it so we can play movies on it.  The TV has a built in Freeview decoder, so there are a few more decent channels too.  Should make the winter pass a bit easier!

Toast NZ – September 27 2008, Kensington Olympia Centre

Toast NZ is an event that shares no similarities with Toast Martinborough, other than it is attended by many kiwis, most of who will consume a fair bit of liquor.   I’d like to point out that those beers were shared between a couple of other people – so don’t worry, I did observe the sensible drinking code!  And yes, that is a Beige Brigade bucket hat!  Also to make an appearance was Dan Carter (all of 5 minutes), Zinzan Brooke and there was live music from OpShop and SuperGroove incl. Che Fu – who played a rocking hour and a half set!

SuperGroove rocked the house.

All in all a great day – plenty of NZ food, beer and a few familiar faces too.  It makes up part of a giant antipodean weekend of Toast Australia (Friday), Toast NZ (Saturday) and Toast South Africa (Sunday).  Seems that we got the best deal!  The only downside was to learn that the Warriors lost their semi-final that day.

Speaking of which, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LIONS??!?!?!?!? Man, 5 finals in 5 years, and bridesmaids every time!

Oh well, at least we made the final, and at least we’ve got the Sheild!

Anyway as I said in the email, Vanita and I are going to try and keep this site updated, rather than send out emails.  We’ll send out an email when we make an update, and you can view our unedited photos on Picassa – click the image galleries to the right.

Vanita is due back on the 2nd of November – Tier 1 Visa and all, so looking forward to that.  Our clocks go back tonight, so it’s back to 5pm darkness, grey skies and chilly mornings.  We love London!

We had a whirl wind tour with Sian who graced us all with a fun filled couple of weeks including a day trip to Brighton, a trip to the Royal Observatory, the Jack the Ripper Tour and the girls went and had Tea at the Ritz.   We even managed to round off Sian’s trip with an Amazing Race moment while taking her to the airport!!

Not long after Sian left, Vanita left for NZ to sort a few things out.  It’s been quite hard without her, and while she’s gone we’ve moved flats.  Had a few issues with the previous flatmates (ie they were filthy pigs!), and depsite the fantastic yard we left behind, the new place is really nice, and has fantastic flat mates to boot! (Pasanaka who I went to highschool with and his wife Phillipa).

I’ve been flat out at work, which will keep me busy and tied through the financial crisis for the next few months anyway!

That’s all for now – I will post some pictures of the new flat soon.

Click here for a map of the place

From General pics – blog

Our place – looking out across the river like the White City of Gondor. We are the third balcony up where the arrow points to.

From 2008 08 23

My girls in front of the Brighton Pavilion

Well after today’s All Black’s performance maybe not…

But very exciting, we’re off to Millenium Stadium to see the All Blacks play Wales on November 22! Tickets were NZ$200, which when converted to the £ is about £15 lol.

I really wanted to go to Twickenham, but this year to do that you had to go to the Dublin and Cardiff or Edinburgh games, and while I loved Dublin, I didn’t feel like shelling out to go there again; and I want to go back to Edinburgh but not for another rugby game! As we have yet to visit Cardiff this seemed like the perfect excuse.

Here’s hoping they don’t pull the same Haka stunt as last time… (not being allowed to do it on the field….)

Sorry folks been a while, though to be fair I haven’t actually told anyone about this blog so I don’t imagine anyone actually looks at it.

What a weekend just gone. Went round to check out Jaynar and Mitesh’s new place (very nice) and watch the All Blacks – fantastic result, and I do think that Brad Thorn earned the week off – he was lucky not to get a card.

Saturday night Vanita and I went to see Shihad play at Shepherd’s Bush Empire – courtesy of the gang – thanks guys it was an awesome present! Shihad rocked – it was just over an hour but it was a energetic show and my ears are still ringing.

Sunday had a few catch up drinks with the guys, and saw Helen and Simon off on their walkabout through the continent. Saw the the tennis – a few of us were going for FedEx but Vanita was gunning for Nadal, and is still going on about it.

Speaking of which Vanita was up in Bolton a few weeks back – trying to get her to write a page and post a few pics – watch this space!

Well summer kicked off with a blast here a few weeks ago, and we had a couple of great weekends worthy of BBQ’s.

I’m home sick today, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to update the blog and get it going properly.

A few weeks back – Spring Bank Holiday – V and I took a trip to Alghero, Sardinia – an Italian island in the Med.

Check out the travel page for links to the photos.

Life in London is otherwise fine – after a great start to summer, the rain and gloom is back. Helen and Si arrived this week, so will be looking forward to catching up with them, while they are in London over the next month or so.

I’ll try and get Vanita to post here too – just so you get the ‘better half’s point of view’!.

After exploring different options WordPress.com seemed to best option.  It is the easiest to use, and best features for what we need.

Anyway, stay tuned in for many more posts, comments and interesting photos.