London Update!

Hi all,

I've had lots of emails about my work and living situation in London so I thought I better post a London update.

So as I mentioned I was offered a job by Neal Perry at EPiServer as a Senior Consultant. I started the Thursday after I arrived and was contracted out to a company called Fortune Cookie. Because we are usually out on contracts we don't have an office however Neal is looking at spaces now, until then any days out of contracts will be spent upskilling or working from home. It's been really good so far.

I stayed with my friends Sandi & Brett for 2 weeks when I first arrived. Now I'm crashing on an air-bed in my friend Jodi's lounge. Looking for a flat and may have found one with a friend of Sandi's but still sorting a few things out. I'm looking to stay in Putney, Battersea or Clapham area so I'm close to Jodi & Sandi and they're nice areas not too far from the city.

I'm already organising some trips away. Next weekend is another bank holiday weekend (the UK have so few long weekends yet they have 2 in one month) and I've booked some flights to Belfast. There's some pretty cool scenery up the top of North Ireland which I hope to check out. Then the weekend after I'll be in Stockholm, Sweden for the EPiServer Partner Summit which I'm really looking forward to. June we have a work weekend away which will probably be in Spain. And finally in July I'm going with Jodi and her friend Vania to France for two weeks! Still working out the logistics of the France trip but it's pretty much all planned I'm just tagging along :) So lots of travel booked already yay!

Went for my National Insurance number appointment today and just had to mention it because it'll help explain how long it takes for things to happen in the UK. The NIN is just a number like our IRD number that is used for tax. Yet it takes 3 weeks to get an interview, after that it takes another 3-6 weeks to hear back their decision and get your number and then it's 9 months before you get your printed card! Crazy.

So that pretty much sums up where I'm at. If anyone has some "must see" places in any of the places I'm heading let me know!

May Bank Holiday - London, Monday 5 May 2008

On Sunday Jodi and I tried to get tickets to a west end theatre show but unfortunately they don't run on Sundays so instead we headed with Evelyn to Camden to check out the markets. Camden is notorious for it's crazy people and shops and we weren't disappointed. There were so many people around and plenty of them were goths, emos, punks and other forms of interesting characters.

The markets themselves weren't the greatest as may of the shops sold things that catered to the Camden style which wasn't really for me. So after a bit of walking around we found a spot on a table above a starbucks and chilled there for a few hours people watching.

Monday was a bank holiday (that's a public holiday in NZ speak) so Jodi and I headed to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. The crowds were incredible, I couldn't believe how many people there were! The actual event itself was nothing to rave about, the guards do a bit of a march up the street which is cool to watch and you get to check out the police on horseback and all the different types of guards. Then they head into the palace grounds and you really can't see much at all. A bit of pacing, plenty of music from the guard band and the odd bit of shouting, then it's all over and the guards who are going off duty march back out again. But the atmosphere was cool so glad we checked it out.

In the afternoon we met up Jordan and his girlfriend Nienke for a picnic in St James Park. We bought the food, they bought the wine. Unfortunately they didn't bring a cork opener! Whoops :) So after a few walks around nearby picnic groups (with no luck) we sent Jordan off in search of a supermarket. Found one but no corkscrew so he bought 2 more bottles of wine. We finished those off and managed to find a corkscrew off a new picnic group near us and opened up the other 2 bottles of wine. Then Jodi's flatmate Shannon joined us, and yep you guessed it, bought more wine! So as you can imagine we all had a fantastic time in the park drinking wine, having some great food, soaking in the sun (Jodi & Nienke both got a little burnt!) and just catching up in general for over 5 hours. It was great!

Catching up with Jodi - London, Sat 2 May 2008

On Tuesday I went to an IT conference to meet with Neal Perry who offered me a contract with EPiServer starting on Thursday. It was great to have work so soon but it meant I needed to make the most of the last day of my break. Unfortunately Wed was pouring with rain so I decided to check out some of the free museums & art galleries. I headed to the Natural History Museum which was so much fun. They had a large section on dinosaurs including bones and fossils and even a cool robotic t-rex! The museum also had neat sections on mammals, birds, fish, humans, earth, minerals etc. They had an area called the Vault which had displays of gold nuggets, diamonds and rare gems. One was the Star of South Africa, a 47 carat diamond set on a necklace pendant. Beautiful! The museum building was gorgeous too. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so don't have any photos to show.

I also checked out the Tate Modern, which holds modern art, supposedly a must see but really not my thing, I don't get contemporary art. So instead I went to the National Gallery which housed all the old school paintings. My favourite was a beautiful unfinished sketch by Leonardo Da Vinci of Mary, her mother, Jesus & John the Baptist. I also saw paintings by Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Monet and Van Gogh. Pretty cool.

I met up with Jodi on Thursday night for a drink at the local and we decided to get together for some site-seeing on the weekend. Saturday was such a nice day we decided to hop on a boat cruise down the river Thames to Greenwich. Her friend Evelyn joined us too. It was great heading down the river on a nice day and Greenwich was wicked. It had beautiful parks and was great for chilling out on a nice day, we definitely weren't the only ones with the same idea. Greenwich has the Royal Observatory which is home to the Prime Meridian (0 deg longitude) and the Millennium Clock. It was packed up there but managed to get a quick shot of me with one foot in the western hemisphere and one in the eastern.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying a drink at the Trafalgar Tavern, a well known pub on the river front. They were filming a BBC period drama on the river bank which was interesting to watch. In London you can take your drinks out of the pub, they even give you takeaway cups! It was great to enjoy a drink on a seat by the river.

Arrival - London, 28 April 2008

I was lucky enough to land in London on a sunny day which made getting around that little bit easier. Had to work out the tube which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I came across some really nice helpful people which was great.

My friend Sandi was really nice and took the day off work so she could meet me at her place and then show me around London. We spent the afternoon walking around London which was a great way for me to get my bearings and get used to the train and tube. We saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey on our first stop. I have to say Big Ben is beautiful, the detail was amazing. We saw Piccadilly Circus with its massive tv screens, Convent Garden with its street performers, and spotted the Ritz hotel. We checked out the Tower of London, which I'll definitely be heading back to to check out the Crown Jewels.

We walked along the Tower Bridge which was absolutely beautiful and checked out Buckingham Palace. It was great walking around London and awesome to catch up with Sandi. I think I'm going to enjoy living here.

..oh and i spotted my first squirrel! :)

Hanoi, Vietnam, 27 April 2008

Last day in Vietnam. I flew out at 8pm that night but some of the group were gone first thing in the morning. Jade, Leah & I were on the same plane to Bangkok so we spent the day together. We went with Sarah, Jo & Anna (who were staying extra days) to visit he Temple of Literature, a very pretty temple built around 1100 for the scholars. It was a nice relaxing time just strolling through the grounds.

We went to Koto for lunch which is a very famous restaurant that provides apprentices & education for street and under-privileged youth. The food is amazing and the restaurant gorgeous. We sat at some funky booths with big cushions, pure heaven!

And sadly this is where my trip in Vietnam comes to an end. I had an amazing time, Vietnam is truly a wonderful place and I would definitely recommend it. I've seen and done so much and made some great friends along the way. I will never forget everything I've experienced here. It was the perfect way to kick start my travels.

Goodbye Vietnam & Giang's Morning Glory Tour!

Hanoi, Vietnam, 26 April 2008

Today was the last full day in Vietnam so I decided to get up with the rest of the group for a 6am walk around the lake. A few of the group went for a walk every morning so the rest of us decided to join them for the last day. It was fun watching the early morning activities around the lake, older women doing Thai Chi, younger women doing aerobics, guys doing chin-ups on road signs and working out on gym equipment on the side of the road!

Our big trip today was to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and museum. We queued up with the hundreds of other people (mainly Vietnamese from other provinces and school kids) to see Ho Chi Minh. I couldn't believe the amount of people! Thankfully the line moved quickly and we were shuffled through by the scary guards with guns & bayonets. Very strict at the mausoleum - long clothes only, no hats or sunglassses, no bags, cameras or phones, no talking and arms at side (not in pockets). Ho Chi Minh just looked like a wax figure lying in a bed, very white and didn't look real. Quess I didn't know what I was expecting though. He gets sent to Russia every year for 2 months for a 'fix up' :)

After the mausoleum we visited his two homes, one was on stilts next to a lake and very beautiful. You could tell he enjoyed the simple life. The last stop was the museum which had one floor of his history and photos and another floor full of crazy contemporary art which I just didn't get at all. The craziest one I just had to get a photo of - it was a giant table with giant fruit! Looked nuts.

More shopping in the afternoon and then our final group dinner which was really sad. We had a book of messages we wrote for Giang and a teatowel with Australia on it (it was Anna's) which we all wrote on to show where we lived. I had to draw in NZ. It became pretty obvious we had all become good friends and we were all sad our trip was ending, including Giang!

A few of us headed to a bar after diner for a specialty coffee, I had one with Kahlua & Baileys which was tasty! We stayed till about midnight chatting and enjoying a few laughs. It was a great way to end our trip.

Hanoi, Vietnam, 25 April 2008

On the way to Hanoi we stopped at a ceramic village where we were able to watch them painting various ceramic items at a workshop, they are so fast. And we also stopped off at the Hong Ngoc Humanity Center which is a business that gives opportunities to disabled Vietnamese .It was hard to be back in a big city after so much time in smaller towns. It felt so crowded.

We visited the 'Hanoi Hilton' ie. the old war prison which was interesting but a bit too much reading of not very interesting information for me. The rest of the day was shopping and walking around with a couple of the girls.

In the evening we went to the Water Puppet Theatre and I really enjoyed the show. It's just how it sounds, there's a square pond of water (which is used to hide the part that connects to the puppet) and the puppets dance on top of the water. It was in Vietnamese so they use a lot of actions to convey the story and it was really funny!
We then headed to the night market which was insane because there were so many people around!