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I was going to write to you all about the lovely snow we've been having, the lunar eclipse, my busy busy work, Warwick's shift to Cambridge - I was going to make a million miles out of each of those things but right now I only have one piece of news:

On Saturday last, Warwick asked me to marry him... and I said YES! Both our families are over the moon, and we will be married later this year in New Zealand :)

I am grinning like a silly idiot 24/7 :) and as I am in grave danger of gushing and gushing and boring you silly, I will stop here.

Love (and happy skips and hops),
T*

24/03/01 Next
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You know, sometimes I walk around London, a place which has become my familiar stomping ground, and all the odd and beautiful things which make England such a foreign country to me strike me all over again.

The market traders are great, I love the market culture here, and I love hearing the fruit and vegetable traders calling out their prices at the top of their voices.

Flower ladies (think: Eliza Doolittle) do still exist, but where Eliza sat on the street and sold flowers, these women (dressed the part) take you by surprise, pressing tiny foil-wrapped posies (a few sprigs of lavendar or a small chrysanthemum) into your palm, telling you to have a nice day, and then telling you you owe them a pound for the flower. It is not very nice - it is very difficult to give the posy back.

And the London fog is just as Oscar Wilde's Dorian Grey and all the stories of Jack the Ripper had me imagine it to be... low and clingy and all-enshrouding, eerie. Yes the tubes are still crowded and don't seem to get anywhere fast, the pollution (noise, light, other) is stifling at times, but when the fog descends London looks to me just like the picture painted in so many old stories.

I have just come back from another day spent in Oxford (love Oxford!) where, as all over the country, the meadows are now closed off or surrounded by disinfected mats and straw to try and contain foot-and-mouth disease. We walked along the river and over the straw to a pub on the river, and sat down to lunch with the unmistakeable and unavoidable aroma of disinfectant heavy around us.

It is one disaster after another for the poor farmers here (but I do hope it is one in the eye for intensive farming practices!) Apparently foot-and-mouth can even be carried by birds so I think they are fighting an uphill battle. As for me, I guess MAF will be dealing to my shoes at the NZ border later this month.

We have been having flurries of snow and it is hard to believe that British Summer Time is only a matter of weeks away now. I love walking through the falling snow - it is so peaceful, it even seems to turn the volume down a notch or two. I don't hear the traffic so much when the snow is falling, it seems to subdue everything.

I was walking down Tottenham Lane towards Crouch End the other night when the snow began to fall gently, the traffic noise seemed to dissipate, and just as I was wondering at the buildings, the snow, the traditional-Englishness of it all, the local church bells started to chime. We are not in New Zealand anymore, Toto! Beautiful.

And as I type, Warwick is engrossed in the latest Clive Cussler novel after a tall mug of leek and potato soup (it is perfect leekandpotatosoup weather). It is a peaceful Saturday night and it is just bliss to be inside in the warmth.

Thanks for all your feedback about our website - it is so much fun writing it and changing it! More photos on the way in a week or so, I promise, including a few I managed to take of Warwick despite his protests :) Shhhh! Don't say a word!

Love, Tania.

25/03/01 Next
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I have a busy week ahead preparing my work so that noone notices my absence too much - I will be gone for the entire month of April, and although that covers Easter, it is a very long time away.

In fact, I have been so very busy that I have not been to the gym, or training aywhere in fact, for over a week now. I have a 5K race in London tomorrow and I am not very well prepared (sheepish looks). Still I have made another resolution to manage my time better so that my health and training don't suffer from my late working hours.

We watched The Boat Race today (Oxford v Cambridge Universities annual event) - saw it on TV, might make it to the actual event next year. It's only in London after all! It was very exciting, we cheered on Cambridge and they won :)

I'm a bit put out though, that they don't appear to have a women's race. They've had women studying (and rowing) at the universities for long enough now that it should be possible to put a good team together!! >:(

And British Summer Time begins tonight! (That will put us 11 hours behind New Zealand). So the long evenings begin tomorrow, you can guess that puts me in a very nice mood :)

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Sooooo disappointed, by the end of all that travelling I was really ready to just power out as fast as I could over 5 kilometres. Instead I jumped up and down behind the drinks table, occasionally able to serve some of the poor souls doing the 50k race.

The race was in Victoria Park, a lovely, huge stretch of land with sports grounds, playgrounds, even a lake, in Tower Hamlets. It was very pretty today, with all the blossom out, and I found a part of it called the Speechmakers' Forum (popularly known as the "forum and agin' em") - like Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner.

I don't know if Victoria Park is still used for that purpose, Hyde Park certainly is. There are some real nutters there on a Sunday afternoon - I shrank right back into the crowd once when I heard a Kiwi on his soapbox telling everyone, very seriously, just why God has forsaken Britain (and the rest of the world) for the wholesome and righteous nation of New Zealand. You get a real assortment of people speaking there on a huge variety of topics. It is always really interesting to hear some of those views on the world - I think it is a valuable tradition here that Joe Public has air-time and an audience on any given Sunday.

Saw another Robin Reliant (British three-wheeled car aka Mr Bean, Only Fools and Horses) on the way home today. They are much more common than you might think... The last one ever rolled off the production line only last year, to the disappointment of the official afficionados club! And I thought they were built solely for the purposes of BBC comedy!

We have just come home through Cambridge on a quiet Sunday evening, it was a lovely, still night and I think we are both realising just how much we will miss this beautiful city (I haven't even lived here!) If we can possibly end up here on a longer-term basis somehow someday, then we certainly will.

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I hardly slept on the flight (this is why it was gruelling, after a very busy and wakeful week, I was desperate to sleep) but I did drink lots and lots of water and I attribute a very fast recovery to this. I drank all morning before the flight and bought an extra three litres at the airport to take on with me. I didn't drink anything sugary on the plane, not even juice, and I feel better than after any other flight and my ankles are back to normal size in less than a day :)

It's funny, but NZ seems much more striking to me this trip than ever before - I guess I have been away so long this time that I'm noticing things that much more. Mountains! Wooden weatherboards! Tin roofs! Trees (so many, so dark, so different)! That ACCENT! The clear, sweet air! The sunlight! I felt instantly at home :) We went to Nikki's for hot cross buns and coffee on the verandah (verandahs!) I have been drinking our gorgeous farm water and eating Lisa's Hummus, and I heard Kim Hill's show this morning.

And it has rained all day today, with heavy rain warnings across much of the North Island. Looking forward to more of yesterday's sunshine in the weeks to come...

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It's funny, parts of the Waikato really could be English countryside: rich, green and gently rolling pasture. Still there is always something softer about the English landscape, and I think perhaps it is the light. As soft and rich as the fields here may be, the sunlight has a very different quality which sharpens the view and lends bright, clear colour as opposed to the rich, deep tones of the English pasture.

I am enjoying wearing a T-shirt again (the sun did come out in the end). Sarah and I had lunch in Thomas Park (Morrinsville) after figuring out the locks on the gates... they have fenced off the park! And it took a good few embarrasing minutes to suss the locks. But it was worth it for the company and 20 minutes on the swings :)

I also went to Tauranga with mum, who had a photo in the finals of a photo competition on the theme "What I Love About Tauranga". Of all the things to make a girl homesick! (I think this was part of some intricate family plot...) Beach shots, swimming, boating... [sigh!] The Bay of Plenty is a beautiful place and it is much better just to visit if at all possible, than to read my second-hand scribblings about it.

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Mum and I got back from Christchurch last night, sans valises. Only in the departure lounge in Christchurch we had been talking about our unfailing faith in airlines to get your bags to your destination through several airports; we arrived in Hamilton at about 7pm last night to be told they had left all the luggage in Auckland. At least this happened on our journey home :) Auckland and Hamilton were comparatively balmy in the early evening - a big change from Christchurch.

The flight itself was the best I've ever had on any plane! A teensy little Bandeirante, the smallest plane I've ever flown on: 15 passengers, pilot and co-pilot. It was great! And the service was brilliant. The co-pilot told me those planes are just big toys, and I agree :) It was fun from start to finish, 20mins from Auckland to Hamilton, whirring propellers, one seat on either side of the aisle, so we got a large window each with a brilliant view (I don't think we ever got too high up). We all had to stoop to walk through the cabin.

Christchurch: we got gorgeous, summery spells among some very nippy, breezy days. Spent lots of time and money in the Cookie Time factory in Christchurch, although it takes me so much longer now to eat one of those monsters than before (London-dwellers reading this: I managed to fill orders while I was there - thanks for the excuse!)

After Clem's graduation we went out to lunch at the Brewer's Arms in Merivale, where they do a stone grill for those carnivores among us. You have a choice of ostrich, croc, roo or venison which is served raw on an incredibly hot stone slab - you cut and cook it as you like it. Or if you are incredibly hungry or indecisive, you can pay $NZ 28 (GBP 10) for a mixed grill. I was too full by the end of my nachos for the pavlova, so the sudden and acute craving I developed while poring over the menu endures :(

14 April, pm
Aaaaah... The night sky is as clear and bright tonight as ever I have seen it, all the southern stars are out, and the Magellanic Clouds. I have missed them!

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I fly out tomorrow, although I am still in some degree of denial over that fact. It doesn't feel like I am going back to England yet. There was a real cold nip in the air this morning though - maybe it's a timely move! But we have had a gorgeous run of unseasonable warm and sunny weather here.

In the last two weeks we have walked along Milford beach, snorkelled out to Goat Island, and climbed Rangitoto (achieving the first sign of a watchstrap mark on my wrist in about 18 months). I clambered up pretty successfully in my skimpy wee town boots, having forgotten the walking shoes I had brought for the purpose! We also zoomed around the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and the North Shore.

We have paid our respects to the remains of the tree at One Tree Hill (now very often referred to as None Tree Hill or Untree Hill) and sauntered around old haunts between Queen Street and Auckland University. Long live feijoa and passionfruit sorbet! Our kebab, frozen yoghurt, gelato and cookie shops are all still there - not a Westfield Shoppingtown in sight, although the St James cinema is now empty. The development of the Auckland waterfront from Victoria Park end right out to the old Oriental Markets on Tamaki Drive is something to see if you haven't been there in a while.

I am now hoping for a turn in the weather in the UK, a seamless progression from the southern hemisphere summer's end (autumn is not the right word) to the northern hemisphere's summer. Will keep you posted!

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WRONG! Thank you, United Airlines, for the extra day of sunshine and family you arranged for me :) I guess the Student Loan Accounts Manager sends his love as well.

Four weeks (and one day) can just skip by if you're spending them with some of your favourite people in an extended summer. (BTW all you Kiwis are correct: I have indeed stolen the sunshine and installed it safely in the English heavens. It's shy in these unfamiliar surrounds, but it's coming out of its shell).

I am seriously thinking of putting up a FAQ section on this site, changing the answers as appropriate! The following would be included:

• Yep, we got heaps organised. We got just about a whole wedding organised and booked. All that and we're still engaged ;)
• Yep, NZ was gorgeously sunny, and I am brilliantly relaxed :)
• Nope, I'm not suffering from jetlag.
  (Experiencing it, yes, suffering from it, no).

In fact I am jetlagged in the most wonderful way: I wake up at 3.30 or 4.00 am, fresh and alert and ready to start the day. By the time I get to work at nine I have my washing done, my room tidy, another book read, some study completed, and an hour put in at the gym. I am out like a light by 8pm.

Oh rats! Just realised I never got that pavlova I was craving mid-April!

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Well, I brought the sunshine, but it seems Warwick has brought the warmth. On the day he touched down at that giant three-dimensional HSBC advertisement we call London Heathrow, summer made its arrival (or at least, began its preliminary campaign). Gorgeous! Real T-shirt and sandals weather - gotta get myself some T-shirts and sandals.

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This is the absolutely idyllic former hang-out of a pretty remarkable group of friends: Rupert Brooke, Virginia Woolfe, Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, Keynes, T.S. Elliot, E.M. Forster. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... history and philosophy and literature and sunlight and green grass and blossomy trees and fruit scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream :) Needless to say we have already returned for more of same.

Warwick is searching for a place to live in Surrey, so we are taking the weekends to make the most of Cambridgeshire. He has taken me out to Ely (he explored it while I was back in NZ), where we saw the cathedral, Oliver Cromwell's house, and the lovely narrow boats on the river. Ely is so named (get this) because of all the eels that live there :)

We also went out to Denny Abbey (hello, Denny!). This is an old building in very tranquil surroundings, which was begun in the twelfth century. Denny Abbey is is the only religious site in England to have been occupied at various times by three different monastic orders.

It has housed Franciscan monks, nuns (the Poor Clares, a very closed community about whom little is known) and Knights Templar. (The Knights Templar were a fighting order of monks, who became very powerful throughout Europe during and after the crusades).

As we are finding so often in our trips to monasteries and abbeys around this country, the religious orders were disbanded by Henry the Eighth.

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Friday June 1st: What with my short-term memory behaving like a sieve (no, more like a black hole) at the moment and what with being deeply engrossed in a cryptic crossword between Waterloo and Farnborough (got it all out but one) I shouldn't really have been surprised on Friday night to find I had left my bag on the train. I discovered this in the car on the way from Farnborough to Cambridge...

Eeeeks! My bag! My bag with only a New Zealand address on it! My bag containing my brand-new (two days old) uninsured, prescription sunglasses. The second pair of sunnies I have ever owned. The first pair of sunnies I have ever owned that I can see through. Expensive. Uninsured. On a train somewhere between Waterloo and Basingstoke, at risk of being stolen by anyone or blown up by wary authorities.

Eeeeks! (Word of the month).

Lovely Warwick drove up and down the M3 three times as we went back to the station again and again checking out possible courses of action, but my bag was still on its own little adventure, and no-one knew where. When we had done all we could we finally left for Cambridge, arriving there very late, to pack up the last of Warwick's things and clean his place for the next tenant.

Saturday June 2nd: South West Trains Lost Property closed for the weekend. More packing and cleaning - and the felicitous discovery of Haagen-Daaz Vanilla ice-cream in the process :)

Sunday June 3rd - still the weekend. South West Trains Lost Property still closed. But Sunday June 3rd was also the final day of the World Rugby Sevens :) We left bright and early on a gorgeous day and headed to Cardiff. Driving through the English countryside is fascinating, there are some beautiful looking houses/mansions/palatial constructions out there, you can see just enough of them to get an idea of their size and beauty, but they are tucked away in clumps of trees, pretty much out of view. Rats!

Cardiff... We love Cardiff! We love Wales! (Have I said that before?) We know Cardiff well now so there was no messing about finding our way. Saw the Aussie 7s team jogging through the city in the morning, and stretching and doing drills beside the castle, but didn't run them over... we left that job to our 7s pack.

The crowd was thin (where is the support for this hugely entertaining sport?) but the atmosphere was fantastic, lots of singing (Father Abraham had seven sons, seven sons had Father Abraham...) and some very funny moments in the stands and on the pitch. Fiji, who have dominated 7s until recently, made their last appearance as their country puts all its finances into fielding the best 15s side they can.

[Very sad! All this prioritising of men's rugby 15s around the world... 7s teams and any women's teams of any size and any code are having to bake cakes to raise the money to defend their well-earned world titles while our under-performing 15s are showered with cash. OK, jumping back off soap-box now.]

On Sunday evening we ate at yummy Pizza Express (a chain which is starting to expand globally, very highly recommended by me, the pizza connoiseur) and (basking in a feeling of complete organisation and control after a clueless two weeks of losing keys, keycards, diaries and now a bag) I started to jot down some of the things I thought I should write home about.

Monday June 4th, end of weekend, South West Trains Lost Property people back to work! And THEY HAD FOUND MY RUCKSACK! (You know, backpack, but they got a slightly exaggerated picture of my cluelessness when I said I had mislaid a backpack). Nothing gone from it! When I talked to them I jotted down the reference number onto the same Pizza Express napkin. And when I got to Waterloo this morning (Tuesday) I gave them the napkin with the reference number (and my email notes, including a very important to-do list of things for our website) on it. And I guess they threw it in the bin.

So here I am, recording what I can to the best of my memory, but knowing I've missed stuff out, and gleefully reunited with my new sunnies (yippeeee!) The first pair I have ever been able to see through! Expensive, still uninsured, but back in my possession :) Bliss bliss bliss! It is magic, it is just plain wierd, being able to see the world shaded from the glare and still sharp as can be! It clouded over today after a good week of sun, but there you go...

Well, as I said, this will all be on the website only from now on, unless you want me to continue to send to you regularly. There are a few updates on the site that I haven't emailed to you - I have kept writing over the last couple of months, but haven't had time to send it out to everyone.

There may be a change of web address in the future (BT have finally lost Warwick as a customer, through their infamous ineptitude at any dealings regarding residential telecommunications) - I will let you know if that necessitates a change of URL. What it definitely does mean is that we can't upload changes for another week or so while Warwick gets the new company on the case. So watch this space!

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Driving has got to be the best - the only - way to see England! This country is lovely, and you only see the very worst, noisiest, dirtiest parts by train. We drove through miles and miles of thick glades, through countryside and forest, and down the little country lanes which have been a travel dream of mine since I saw Remains of the Day.

There are genuine, old milestones everywhere, little stones peeking through the grass at the sides of the road, some of them look sooooo ancient!

The conference was great fun - I met Val Biro, who illustrated some of the Jennings series and also Wind in the Willows. Warwick met Anthony Buckeridge, who is now nearing 90 years of age. He read to us from one of his books - BRILLIANT!

Driving back we suffered an enormous craving for chips. Not crisps - CHIPS, with capital letters, underlinings and exclamation marks! This is the country for them after all, or so we are told. Could we find a chip shop between Lewes and Guildford? No. Then, after an hour and a half of driving, we found the best chips I have ever eaten, not far from Guildford :) They were so good in fact, that we went back 10 minutes later for more, to the amusement of the shop staff.

Another craving to dominate my life lately is for pineapple Fruju! I got close, with an orange Calippo, on Saturday 23, when we went to Box Hill in the North Downs (Surrey). Box Hill is the setting for the picnic in Jane Austen's Emma, and it is a glorious spot. Its name comes from the rare box trees, the only tree apart from the yew able to get a sure enough hold to grow on the steep slope.

It is a National Trust property, and well worth the steep climb. The lookout over the North Downs is fantastic, you can see 180 degrees, right out across the downs. Photos will be up when we have them developed.

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We were out there for work, so I didn't expect to see much of the city... but three cheers for daylight savings! I managed to see quite a bit :) although I do want to go back and see more of Northern Ireland.

The people I met were very friendly, which was refreshing after so long in surly London (and I have to say I felt safer walking on my own there than I do in parts of London).

Some highlights: The Crown Liquor Saloon is an old-fashioned, beautifully and ornately decorated pub with snugs - it is also on webcam, you can log on right now and see what's happening there:

The pictures in the fenceposts of the Royal Victoria Hospital, depicting a person aging, are really well done. What else? The accent. The hospitality. The taxi tour...

... A group of us took a taxi tour around the Loyalist and Unionist districts of the city, places like nothing I have ever seen before. I have never seen so many flags - they were hung across the street, from lamp posts and from houses. The streets were full of colour. Empty spaces were piled with old furniture, tyres and wood, ready to burn on July 12.

The political murals adorning so much of these areas are real works of art, really powerful images. One depicted a balaclava-clad youth, whose rifle is aimed right at the viewer, no matter where you stand. As you move past the mural, the gun seems to follow you.

In the republican area, we saw street signs bilingual in Irish and English, and in the Shankill district kerbs are painted red, white and blue. We learnt so much - all my School Cert history came flooding back to me! - and at the end of the tour it was impossible for us to tell what allegiance our driver had. Our colleagues who took similar tours felt the same: it was neutral, educational, and important.

We saw (and signed) the Peace Wall. Our driver told us people "from as far away as New Zealand and Australia" had already signed the wall. So I piped up! He was a bit disappointed I didn't find any names I knew, but I pointed out that my friends would find someone they knew when they came :)

The bomb guards on the houses on the other side of the wall tell a story, as do the security around a local police station, the police watch towers and the British military observation post built on top of a block of republican flats.

I don't think I could write here even half of what I learnt and felt, and I didn't take any photos, but I am left with some enduring pictures of that tour.

Foot and mouth disease is still an issue throughout Europe, and we had to walk across disinfectant mats entering and leaving Northern Ireland. (Aside: here, as in NZ, there is a diamond road sign depicting a cow to make drivers aware that stock is moved around the roads. A recent UK survey found that 60% of respondents thought the sign meant foot and mouth infected area...!)

Apparently they have recently had a major seatbelt campaign in Northern Ireland. Since this campaign, the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast has reported an increase in the number of traffic accident injuries. Yes, the campaign worked: people are now living through accidents to be treated and returned home, when before they did not even make the hospital. Food for thought!

I could write another 1,000 words on my few days in Belfast, but I'll stop here. I can't wait to go back!

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The story? Um, trains, struggling with love, loyalty, independence, self-doubt and the search for a higher entity. Yes, I did say trains - steam, diesel and electric trains.

And it's all done on rollerskates - that's the best bit. The skating is brilliant - they dance on their stoppers! I wish I could be a professional rollerskate dancer! And I wish I could sing like Pearl the Observation Car.

I am still very struck by the many very vulnerable people on the streets here in London - i's not something I've been able to get used to. It keeps me thinking of home, and how our relatively small problem could be nipped in the bud before it gets like this, but I don't know how.

It's been baking hot here, lovely except for the accute shortage of beaches in the Crouch End and Old Street areas. I have been watching Wimbledon - some thrilling tennis! I like the summer sports coverage, we not only get tennis and cricket during daylight hours, but we also hear more about southern hemisphere rugby as the northern teams tour our part of the world.

Today it rained very heavily at last. Warwick has been saying over the past few weeks that the minute any decent rain arrives he will go out and stand in it and savour it for as long as possible. And he is indeed a man of his word! We went out today (I couldn't let someone that mad out on his own, now, could I?) and stood in the pouring rain.

Warwick wouldn't let me take his picture, so I will recreate the moment for you as faithfully as I can. He stood in his t-shirt and shorts, arms outstretched, face turned towards the sky, mouth open, and soaked up all the rain. I hopped around shivering under a tree.

And it was really very beautiful! Everything smells so good after the rain. Some of the neighbour's roses are poking through the hedge, and they are so beautiful just now. I warmed up as I dried out and I am very pleased for that moment of madness :)

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And it's brilliant. It's brand new with a sparkling engine, Michelin tyres and Momo steering wheel. Warwick parks it out the back of his house, below his bedroom window, and every time he passes the window he stops to take in the view with a satisfied sigh and an ear-to-ear grin. There are no pictures on the wall, but a Subaru Imprrrezzzaaa out the window does just as well!

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Daniel Defoe, William Blake, Isaac Watts, Paul Bunyan and Susannah Wesley are among the 120,000 buried there, because this cemetary in the heart of the city was once just outside it, and these nonconformists were buried out of town. Just opposite is a Wesleyan chapel and Methodist museum, where John Wesley lived and preached and where he is buried. All this history (in such quiet and peaceful places) just 30 seconds from my place of work!

Also not too far from here is a bowling green, which businessy-types hire after work or in their lunch hours. Another relaxing place to sit... although the park beyond the green is a sea of bodies during the hot days.

A couple of weeks ago Warwick and I drove out to the White Horse in Berkshire (or Oxfordshire? I am not quite sure). This is a Bronze Age artwork (3,000 years old) - a figure of a horse carved into the hills and filled in with chalk. It's amazing, not only in its beauty, but also because it can only be seen properly from the air - how did the artist(s) get it so accurate?

Check out aerial shots of the horse on this site:

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMWhiteHorse.html

and our own photos here.

The public are invited to help preserve the horse every seven years, by hammering new chalk into it. This is a major festival celebrated with (among other events) Morris dancing and cheese rolling. (You roll your cheese down the hill, and chase down after it, the winner is the person whose cheese is first to reach the bottom - check out this CNN report on the annual cheese rolling event in Gloucestershire, the biggest in Britain:

Apparently there is a copy of the White Horse carved into the landscape of the South Island of New Zealand. And there is in existence a photo of a certain equine veterinary surgeon holding his stethoscope to the horse's chest...!

The horse and the surrounding area are just beautiful... we walked along the hills looking out over the plains. We watched a storm approach us and saw forked lightning (I had never seen forked lightning before) - it was an awesome atmosphere that day. On the way home, we stopped in at a farm selling cream teas (an excellent example of fine British cuisine if anyone ever tells you there is no such thing!) The homemade jam was the highlight :) We had to drive over disinfectant mats in and out of the farm - foot and mouth disease is still a major concern here even though it is no longer regular headline news.

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We have recently been sizzling under an amazing heatwave here - that has since gone but should return later this week. A couple of weekends ago it was over 30C and there was no breeze in North Hampshire, so Warwick and I took the most direct route to the coast. This brought us to Portsmouth (we were hoping for somewhere more holidayish like Brighton or Bournemouth, but Portsmouth with its pebbly waterfront and docks was closer).

A brilliant choice! We wandered around appreciating the breeze in Portsmouth... and the papers the next day showed photographs of Brighton and Bournemouth, standing room only on the beaches! The funny thing was the amount of people sunning themselves to leather in the heat of the day - it was like stepping back in time in NZ. This is not something we have done for decades now. I guess it is still a lot safer here, but sunscreen and covering up is a relatively novel concept to many sunbakers yet.

We were back in Portsmouth the weekend just gone, with our friends Rachel and Robyn, to visit the Isle of Wight. (Click here for our snaps). We took the hovercraft - what fun! It rises up and sort of skids sideways into the sea, and moves very quickly. Again, we had to cross disinfectant mats for foot and mouth disease when entering and leaving the island.

We were planning on walking the coastal path around part of the southern coast - there is too much on the island to see in only a day - but everyone was pretty tired and we only saw two beaches in the end! It was lovely though... Shanklin had old-fashioned beach huts, deckchairs and windbreaks for hire (going to the beach here is a very different experience from going to the beach in NZ - not to mention the piers chocka with noisy spacies parlours!)

We took the train (a decommissioned tube! It was quite funny, travelling the countryside of the Isle of Wight in a tube train!) - we took the tube to Sandown, a very, very peaceful place indeed. You walk about ten minutes to get to the beach, through quiet streets. We saw a house that was almost completely covered in ivy - it was in full leaf and had grown over the windows and most of the front door. The sand is yellow, but the choppy, wavey water and breakers reminded me of home. We sat on the beach and soaked up the early evening sun, just relaxing. I haven't felt so far from the rat-race in a very long time - this was a real tonic!

Oh, and Warwick got the bright idea of having candy floss on the way home! Yay!

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It was US!!! US!!! US!!!

And oh! they were good! Real performers, great music. (See Warwick's update for a much more comprehensive account than I will probably be able to muster). Highlights were:

• The tribute Bono paid to his father, who had died only hours before the show. It was a very personal performance.
• Bono taking over the lighting for during Bullet the Blue Sky - playing a spotlight onto the band and the audience - the effect was awesome, like a spotlight searching for fighter planes.
• The political statements - the way this band uses their worldwide stage to raise awareness of human suffering around the world, including the situations in Northern Ireland and Burma and the AIDS crisis in Africa. (Apart from the statements and video presentations the band made within the show, Amnesty International and Greenpeace were allowed to campaign inside the stadium).
• The humour: Bono running around the stage and "into" the lighted background looking for all the world as if he had gone splat! into it. There were some very funny moments :)

And after the show... 20,000 people attempted to catch the tube home. But because we were in such good moods it wasn't really a problem. We had given up on an early night the moment we bought the tickets. Also, letting London's chronic traffic situation get to you only gives rise to chronic stress and all-round bad health. (This city is mellowing me!)

Well, for one who prefers to sleep early and rise early I am having a difficult time adhering to the lifestyle I prefer. (Yes, I know, I always have had...!) The night after the U2 concert, I had a 5K walking race. I am getting a bit notorious for the stunning regularity with which I fail to make the start (late trains, missed trains, clueless taxi drivers, getting off at the wrong station, and only being able to find the padlocked back entrance to the grounds are among my solid gold excuses).

Well last night I made it to the track, and walked 5K in 34:47 (a PB). YAY! And I felt better 10 mins after the race than I did when I began, that's a good sign! Perhaps concerts the night before a race are as good a preparation technique as volcano-touring the night before an exam. I shall conduct further research into this area and keep you all informed of my findings.

A few more things to add while I think of them...

I recently mentioned the historic part of London in which I work (well, OK, the whole of this huge city is pretty historic!) Anyway, a while a ago my friend Cheryl and I headed down to the London Wall in our lunch hour. London Wall is the name of a major road that runs along where the Roman wall used to be. However, some pieces of wall remain in amongst the huge buildings that house market giants and where millions of pounds are traded every day. A sharp contrast!

The parts of the wall that do survive are very sturdy (having coped with wars, attacks, demolition and traffic vibrations for the last couple of thousand years). They are lovely old pieces of the past (why is it that ruins are so much more romantic that entire structures?) and set us to thinking on all sorts of issues such as the growth of the city, global overpopulation, and the rise and fall of entire civilisations... Far too much philosophy for a working weekday!

All the names around here are suggestive of the boundaries of Roman London: Moorgate, Moorfields, Bishopsgate, Broadgate, Mile End, Aldgate, London Wall - history preserved.

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There are various pubs around London where we watch the rugby, according to our mood. But the Covent Garden Walkabout Inn is our traditional haunt, and that is where we sat down for an excellent afternoon's sport. First we wandered around Covent Garden itself, always a busy, colourful place, always tempting one to spend money! There are some excellent adventure shops there so I have Warwick's birthday present sorted.

We nipped into the Australia Shop in Henrietta St in the hope of finding lamingtons but I don't think they stock them any longer. There is a new shop open just opposite, at 15 Henrietta St, full of NZ, Oz and SA food - brilliant! We stocked up on Picnic bars, Peanut Slabs, Afghans, Toffee Pops (NZ Shop doesn't do these) and best of all, ice-cold Bundaberg. Yippee!

So to the game... the back bar at the Walkabout is non-smoking, and they had the last test of the Ashes on screen (live) at the same time as their delayed coverage of SA v NZ, but they only had the commentary on the cricket. So we watched the rugby on mute (rather than squish into the packed, smokey, top bar) - it was luxury! Hearing the cricket and watching the rugby - I didn't know it was possible but it was really good. Got a bit confusing at times: "...and it's out!" screamed the commentary, when the ball was clearly still inside the touch line. After a confusing second or so the penny would drop and you'd swing around to see the wicket replayed.

STOP PRESS! We have just discovered a south London bar that will show next week's game live at 8:30am - come one, come all! Yeeha!

We wandered through a glorious, sunny London after the game (basking in the warmth of victory!) and came upon Somerset House on the Strand. If you walk inside there are heaps of little fountains, just jets of water coming up out of the ground. Parents and kids and all sorts of people, including us, wandered through to cool down or stop and play in the water - it is a welcome relief from the searing heat. There were also performers dancing through the water with the children, a lovely, lovely sight!

We had cream tea (getting addicted to these - although Warwick has to drink all the tea) and apple tart (with gorgeous apple crumble ice-cream) out on the terrace before heading to Waterloo to catch a train home.

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Since I last wrote in August it's got mighty chilly! We have been meeting up with friends from around the place and being tourists together, mostly been doing city things like shows. We saw Ben Elton and Andrew Lloyd-Webber's The Beautiful Game, a very powerful and interesting (and sad) musical about Northern Ireland in the sixties and seventies. Warwick and I went to the Duxford airshow which was really interesting - I learnt heaps there.
Click here for photos with Warwick's version of events (which is much more detailed). It was also Warwick's birthday... cake and card games and presents - YAY! :)

The foot and mouth crisis continues in parts of the country, but more of the countryside is now opening for tourism. I think it is a good time to visit some of these places - the usual crowds are absent and the small economies need the cash.

It will be nice to see mum and dad soon - they are on holiday in Italy at the moment (walking their shoe leather to bits by the sounds of it) and we will fly up to meet them in Glasgow at the weekend. Then it's more rugby (the end of the 6 Nations tournament which was postponed due to F&M) and more shows and plays and concerts lined up :) Because it's such a hassle (and an expense) to get to London at the weekend we are lumping all our plans together and trying to get to some museums on the days we will be seeing shows.

And that's me for now!

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I have been finding the archaeological programmes on TV incredibly interesting. Large chips of crockery along the banks of the Thames in London, which look for all the world like 20th century throwaways, turn out to be Roman throwaways. Slight mounds in the landscape, so slight you have to lie on your front to see them, turn out to be worn down barrows (burial mounds) complete with skeletons, jewellery and weaponry. Cities and towns today follow patterns set out by Romans or Saxons. It's fascinating stuff! I haven't actually been out on a dig myself, I am living this all vicariously through the excellent documentaries here.

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Warwick and I got up hideously early to get to Stansted and catch our flight. After we checked our luggage in we heard an announcement over the PA system: due to new, tighter security measures, all sharp objects such as knives, scissors, etc, were to be placed in hold luggage and not carried onto the plane in cabin baggage. My teensy-weensy nail scissors were in my cabin baggage but I didn't think too much of them. Teensy-weensy and very non-threatening.

WELL! After screening, my bag was taken aside and searched until the scissors they had spotted were found. They then passed a little cloth over my mobile phone and into every compartment of my little bag. That didn't happen to anyone else's phones or bags! My lovely little pair of nail scissors were confiscated :( They were extremely polite to me and I was actually really happy - it felt good to know that noone on our plane had anything even as dangerous as a teeny pair of scissors with 1.5 cm blades :)

Glasgow: After some intial confusion about meeting up (thanks Nikki and Peter for being so polite and patient when I called you so early on a Saturday morning!) we caught up with mum and dad. We went back to David and Marsha's place in Newton Mearns for some real Scots hospitality :) We had a lovely afternoon, and the four of us went out to see the Burrell Collection of art and museum pieces on the outskirts of the city. These pieces were collected by one man over his lifetime, and there are so many that the exhibition changes every three months, taking 50 years to get back to the way it was at any one point in time. We also nipped out to where Warwick's mum used to live when she was a girl - so close to where my relatives are that they knew the street! We finished the day with a yummy Italian dinner with David, Marsha, Anne and Jean.

Loch Lomond and Stirling: Our B&B served Lockerbie butter! (I often find Waikato's Anchor butter over here, and Lockerbie is sister town with Morrinsville so I thought that was quite cool). We met mum and dad again and drove out to Loch Lomond. What a beautiful place! A cold and misty day, but it all adds atmosphere. The loch is dotted with islands, and is on a fault line - the rolling countryside of the lowlands lie to one side, and the rugged highlands to the other. We drove through Luss and lunched in Tarbet, then pressed on through the Trossachs to Stirling.
Glasgow and Loch Lomond photos here.

I am one of probably only two people on this planet never to have seen Braveheart (mum is the other) and now I know the story has a sad ending I probably never will see it! We went up to Stirling castle (but didn't go in) and learnt about the history of Stirling, Robert the Bruce and William Wallace. We climbed the National Wallace Monument on the Abbey Craig (a real highlight). Wallace's own sword hangs in the 220 ft tower high above Stirling. He must have been about 6'6" to lift that sword - it's at least as tall as I am.
Stirling photos here.

We learnt the story of the battles against the English around Stirling, and looked out over the valley (gorgeous autumn colours) to the old battlegrounds and Stirling Bridge below. Finally we headed out to Bannockburn, where Robert the Bruce successfully led his men against English forces. What a passionate and colourful history! And an excellent weekend!
Bannockburn photos here.

I am meeting up with mum and dad again later this week during their 24 hours in London (didn't they do this last time?) and they should be home again on the weekend. Warwick and I will be home in 11 weeks ourselves - yippeeee!

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It seems every other week there's a new food crisis in the UK. It's interesting to see how Anchor products are marketed here. These are some of their slogans (which go alongside pictures of happy cows wih miles of space and lush green grass and gold glowing skies):

Call us old-fashioned, but shouldn't cows eat grass?

Modern farming? We're 75 years behind, thank goodness.

Our cows eat grass all year round.

"Free-range" is written large on all their packaging and advertising and their catch phrase is "Anchored in nature". BUT... there was an interesting article in the New Zealand Herald recently, arguing (pretty well) that this campaign is misleading. Check it out here:

Warwick and I have started being proper tourists again and doing the London things that we never get around to. We saw The Phantom of the Opera a few weeks ago. I wasn't blown away as I expected to be, but maybe that's because I expected to be. I enjoyed it though and I am glad I saw it.

My trouble with all these famous old theatres and shows is that I always walk in expecting to see something like the Aotea Centre in Auckland - huge. But they are all little and ornate and old-fashioned and just lovely. Every theatre I have been to has been about half the size I expected it to be.

We also saw Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap - loved that! It is a cute play, a bit cliched and entirely from another age.

It's apparently shaping up to be the warmest October since records began in the 1600's - no complaints here!