Things I miss!!
- the sun in general
- beaches
- pies
- scenery
- the sea
- actual weather (not just perpetual cloud)
- people that understand what vowels your pronouncing
- shops and banks that actually upgrade their counters every year. my bank has 50 year old marks in their wooden counters and tartan carpet.
- customer serivce! (instead of constantly improving customer service techniques these guys are in an effort to be the grumpiest and most uncaring)
- eftpos
- fresh fruit and vegatables
- farmbake cookies
- decent nz meat
- decent tv shows
- big modern supermarkets- here they are all like little 4 squares with archaic range of products and store layout
- westfield malls
- glassons and max
- not hearing anything about any other country except britain
- modern anything - buildings, carpet, concrete, any operating process.
OK now things I like about the UK:
- the tubes and trains and buses - the range and frequency of these services means that means 8million people can go anywhere at anytime, every minute and that is cool
- the way the city is built around advising you what tube or bus to take to an event, to work, to see your friends, to that restaurant - and no information about driving or parking.
- the proximity to europe and more countries in general
- theatres
- more shops, and way more funky and exciting range
- 24/7 'off licences' that sell anything you could need from your breakfast to your alchahol.
- how cheap everything is.
- a cosy pub and a stodgy feed on a freezing cold day
- countless pubs, nightclubs, restaurants, etc
- multiple happening areas of town that buzz with activity every night of the week
- the way theres books and magazines devoted to listings of whats happening in town every night - and there's a lot.
- more of everything- more niche industry magazines, more options, more stores, more companys than you can poke a big phone book at..
Things I find interesting:
- the feeling that everything is so old that processes and mind sets and buildings progress is generally slower than the fast changing, cutting edge, modern, NZ way of being.
- guys go shopping. by themselves, and willingly. and their clothes are as funky as the girls. and they're not gay.
- its still very much a cash society. every day people can be seen stopping at a 'hole in the wall'. many shops do not even have a card terminal. no-one pays by card here. feels like your constantly handing over cash left right and centre.
- tv adverts. british use cosy, pretty, warm feeling ads with cartoon characters or kids. no funky bravia adds for these guys.
- the labelling on packaging. our dishcloth is more than just a sponge - its an aerated lineament surface buffer scrub. really.
Friday 12 September 2008
whuss bin happenin bro
well what a busy couple of weeks... im waiting for the weekend to come around so i can go to bed :0
Last week I was helping organise a company event for this week so working 8:30-6:30 every day madly organising things...
on the weekend i had to go to the laundromat again cos our washing machine has been broken for a couple of weeks. (Ed - its fixed now).
We had a big party on sat night for a friends birthday, they'd decked out their house with a strobe light, flashing disco lights, smoke machine, plastic gladiator fighting sticks, and a shisha tent out the back. their flatmate is a dj so he was providing us with awsome tunes all night. it was a great night! see my photos on facebook.
so its monday again, that came around too fast. Get into work with the rest of the organising team at 7:30 and setup. It was held on the 29th floor of our office building in a venue with views out over London in 3 directions...
Monday night I go with a friend to see Spamalot, the Monty Python theatre show at the Palace theatre in Leicester Square. Its a gorgeous old theartre with wood panelling walls, mirrors with curly gold borders, every surface of the theartre is covered in decorative design.
The show itself is absolutely fantastic!! We laughed through virtually the whole show, the actors were full of enthusiasm and very professional.. the costumes and set design and set changes were really well done. I would have paid £20 - the ticket was only £10. well worth it.
Tuesday night i went round to dinner with some family freinds .. was a really nice evening and had a sumptuous chicken risotto- the best food ive had since i left home :D
weds night i actually got home at a reasonable hour for the first time this week.
thursday night me and our posse of friends went to see the feelers at a kiwi/aussie pub in the antipodean quarter of london (shepherds bush eouw) where the whole pub is full of kiwi and aussie accents and they sell pies!!! (yay for the pies!) oh yeah the band was pretty good too. :P
and finally, its friday. :D
ps the title is spelt wrong purpously to represent the accent on letters that british people hear when we kiwis speak. yes becomes yiss. desk becomes disk. you get my drift.
Last week I was helping organise a company event for this week so working 8:30-6:30 every day madly organising things...
on the weekend i had to go to the laundromat again cos our washing machine has been broken for a couple of weeks. (Ed - its fixed now).
We had a big party on sat night for a friends birthday, they'd decked out their house with a strobe light, flashing disco lights, smoke machine, plastic gladiator fighting sticks, and a shisha tent out the back. their flatmate is a dj so he was providing us with awsome tunes all night. it was a great night! see my photos on facebook.
so its monday again, that came around too fast. Get into work with the rest of the organising team at 7:30 and setup. It was held on the 29th floor of our office building in a venue with views out over London in 3 directions...
Monday night I go with a friend to see Spamalot, the Monty Python theatre show at the Palace theatre in Leicester Square. Its a gorgeous old theartre with wood panelling walls, mirrors with curly gold borders, every surface of the theartre is covered in decorative design.
The show itself is absolutely fantastic!! We laughed through virtually the whole show, the actors were full of enthusiasm and very professional.. the costumes and set design and set changes were really well done. I would have paid £20 - the ticket was only £10. well worth it.
Tuesday night i went round to dinner with some family freinds .. was a really nice evening and had a sumptuous chicken risotto- the best food ive had since i left home :D
weds night i actually got home at a reasonable hour for the first time this week.
thursday night me and our posse of friends went to see the feelers at a kiwi/aussie pub in the antipodean quarter of london (shepherds bush eouw) where the whole pub is full of kiwi and aussie accents and they sell pies!!! (yay for the pies!) oh yeah the band was pretty good too. :P
and finally, its friday. :D
ps the title is spelt wrong purpously to represent the accent on letters that british people hear when we kiwis speak. yes becomes yiss. desk becomes disk. you get my drift.
Monday 1 September 2008
Nike 10km Run 31st Aug
Wow, I did it- my first 10km run!!
Last night my flatmates and myself all did the Nike Human Race ('London against the world') from Wembly stadium.
We have been running regularly for a while but really only trained seriously in the last week, (not ideal) but we'd got up to running 7-8kms OK so we were fairly sure we could acheieve the last 2km's on the day.
We file into the stadium with a fellow army of people all wearing the red event tshirts. Pendulum and Moby put on a concert while everything got setup and people got ready. Then wave 1 set off.. then wave 2.. then wave 3 (thats us!) head onto the stadium to warm up then we're off! We follow a curvy course around the carpark and the neighbouring streets and then back into the stadium grounds. There were stewards and supporters encouraging us all along the way which was neat.
We did, infact, all do really well :D my fit-as flatmates got there 51-52min mark, my roommate got 1:02 and I got 1:12. I jogged along comfortably the whole way then sprinted to the finish yelling with my arm up waving at the spectators who were all yelling at us 'go! every second counts! come on london!'.
We got another free tshirt at the end which everyone put on for warmth (yee-ah two free tshirts! awesome) and there was a white army of tshirts on the return tube journey instead of the army of red that was arriving just a couple of hours ago. It was quite funny.. and some strangers on the tube came up to us and said 'what is happening? why is the whole city wearing the same tshirt?' you had to laugh.
Apparantly about 40,000 people took part in this awesome event - and a real mix of people took part, from the olymics Paula Radcliffe (she zoomed past in a flash and people in her wake were left gasping 'was that paula radcliffe? yeah it was!) and there were some army boys in their army gear and packs. Only a few people walked but mostly everyone pushed themselves the whole way.
Overall it was an exciting, fun, well organised event and mass run for charity.
Last night my flatmates and myself all did the Nike Human Race ('London against the world') from Wembly stadium.
We have been running regularly for a while but really only trained seriously in the last week, (not ideal) but we'd got up to running 7-8kms OK so we were fairly sure we could acheieve the last 2km's on the day.
We file into the stadium with a fellow army of people all wearing the red event tshirts. Pendulum and Moby put on a concert while everything got setup and people got ready. Then wave 1 set off.. then wave 2.. then wave 3 (thats us!) head onto the stadium to warm up then we're off! We follow a curvy course around the carpark and the neighbouring streets and then back into the stadium grounds. There were stewards and supporters encouraging us all along the way which was neat.
We did, infact, all do really well :D my fit-as flatmates got there 51-52min mark, my roommate got 1:02 and I got 1:12. I jogged along comfortably the whole way then sprinted to the finish yelling with my arm up waving at the spectators who were all yelling at us 'go! every second counts! come on london!'.
We got another free tshirt at the end which everyone put on for warmth (yee-ah two free tshirts! awesome) and there was a white army of tshirts on the return tube journey instead of the army of red that was arriving just a couple of hours ago. It was quite funny.. and some strangers on the tube came up to us and said 'what is happening? why is the whole city wearing the same tshirt?' you had to laugh.
Apparantly about 40,000 people took part in this awesome event - and a real mix of people took part, from the olymics Paula Radcliffe (she zoomed past in a flash and people in her wake were left gasping 'was that paula radcliffe? yeah it was!) and there were some army boys in their army gear and packs. Only a few people walked but mostly everyone pushed themselves the whole way.
Overall it was an exciting, fun, well organised event and mass run for charity.
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