Hampshire & Sussex

Our little shoebox of a Fiat has successfully blasted its way around the South coast of England. Our journey started in the "New Forest" in Hampshire where there were more horses than the Kingdom of Rohan and they weren't particularly friendly either. Was a good feeling to see the daffodils flowering and a chance to take in some classic English countryside.

A special thanks to the helpful lady at the information centre who recommended the swamp we walked through as being a "good walk". Shall we send you the dry cleaning bill?

We spent the night in Winchester, a rather upbeat and flash town. After dribbling around for an hour we finally found the character filled Wykeham Arms. Established in 1755 (I think some of the patrons could have been there since then) it was a great place for a feed and a bed and our lopsided room had a view to the Winchester Cathedral.

We also managed to take in the chalky cliffs near Eastbourne in Sussex. The February wind was blowing up a bit of a storm but it made for terrific light patterns on the sea and shore.

And well done to Charlton Athletic, who thumped West Ham 4 - 0 in the weekend.

Happy New Year China

And seeing as it's the year of the pig, we pigged out on Chinese food!

Spain won; England bo00od

Old Trafford, Manchester: Field of dreams.

A 6 hour drive from London - if you hit roadworks and traffic delays, and a 4 hour drive back to London - if you speed through roadworks and sit in the fast lane. We manged to drop in on Rugby School, eat copious amounts of junk food and of course, play our trademark brand of urban cricket.

On to the ground: A marvellous sight and sound when full with 58,000 fans. You can check the Spanish fans in the top right hand corner of the photo, flanked by more security than Prince William.

For the record, Spain won the game with a solitary boomer of a goal in the second half.

One thing that really gets on my goat is the crowds in this country. They booed the Spanish team as it was announced, booed the ref as he comes on and by the end of the game they booed the English team as they left the field. As strange as it sounds, to see the English team live makes you realise that they are only human. The press consistently whip up excessive hysteria, photographing these chaps at every corner and the pay packets they receive as a result of TV rights put them on a such an inflated pedestal that the public expects them to perform magic every time they hit the field. Admittedly the Pommy boys didn't play at their best and couldn't create any opportunities up front, but the fact that most of the supporters that moaned and booed had stomachs the size of footballs paints an ugly picture of a lazy blame culture.

So, there's my little man tantrum for the day and it doesn't spoil what was a damn fine outing. It's somewhat ironic that I now find myself whinging about the whingers - but as they say, when in Rome...

Waitangi Day - Circle Line Pub Crawl

Started off our Waitangi Day pub crawl with a champagne breakfast at Sarah's and Lucinda's - there's nothing like getting stuck in early for a full day drinking session!

The pub crawl happens every year on the weekend closest to Waitangi Day, with huge masses of crowds making the journey around the Circle Line. They had 8000 people last year, and I would guess that it was much the same this year.

Here is Sarah getting ready to leave with her taste of Kiwiana: mini bottles of 42 below Vodka mmmmm.......
First stop for us was South Kensington at the Zetland Arms. Had run into Fraser on the platform from Clapham, so he joined in with the 14 girls for this leg. We managed to shut down a few roads in the process....


Next stop was Victoria where we managed to meet up with a whole crowd of people from uni, including Kat and Jeremy:

Sarah getting into the swing of things - the 42 below starting to take effect!

On the platform at Victoria station: Sandy, Lucinda, Sarah and Clare

Fras and Alli:

And the scene at Westminster. We managed to get there early enough, but because of the crowds we didn't get to see any of the haka - but it was still a fantastic day and one that I'm sure I will be repeating! Hamish had originally decided that he didn't want a bar of it, but he must have got lonely, as he downed a wine at home and made it to Westminster to join us in the afternoon :)

With Big Ben in the background:

White Stepney

Nothing like a light dusting of snow to make the walk to work!

A couple of photo's of the London snow that, very considerately, had completely melted by 5pm (right is the view from our window and below is Stepney Church).

St Pauls Cathedral

After 7 months we have finally decided to take in some London sights, beginning with St Paul's Cathedral. Home of the second biggest "dome" in the world (behind Rome of course), tombs of the Duke of Wellington and Lord Nelson, symbol of resilience in the Second World War and housing 530 steps to get right in amongst the smog of London - sensational stuff! London looked just like the borough of industry it is from the top with thin lanes of winding traffic, cranes on every corner and smoke pouring out of the industrial surroundings.

I'm not much good at trudging around tourist sights but the sheer size of this construction was pretty mind boggling. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside but the painting and decoration was fantastic - not to mention a logistical nightmare to undertake 300 years ago.

Stamford Bridge

Welcome to Stamford Bridge, home of the Chelsea Football Club. Fraser, Angus and I managed to get a reasonably good deal on seats in row 5 for the premiership game against Wigan.

Wigan were totally outplayed and didn't help their own cause with schoolboy errors allowing Chelsea to sneak home their first three goals, giving the beer fuelled crowd more cause to praise the club's manager, Jose Marinho.

Chelsea: 4, Wigan: zip.

Highgate Cemetery

It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I highly recommend a tour around Highgate Cemetery to anyone coming to visit London. It has a fascinating history, great stories, amazing Victorian and Gothic architecture, and beautiful overgrown grounds. A great day out with Ms Morison.

http://www.highgate-cemetery.org/

Gabrielle's birthday

My 28th birthday weekend was a low-key affair, but lovely nonetheless. H baked my favourite dessert in the whole world: tiramisu :) and we had Steph and Fras over for dinner the night before to help us devour it.


On Sunday I spoke to the family back in the homeland and went for a quick walk before heading off the pub to meet some friends for a good Sunday feed! We finished off the day with some challenging games of Jenga and a few wines.

Pulling off the ultimate Jenga move - the tension of it all!

Christmas cut-outs

Just had second Christmas today! None of the parcels from my fam arrived for Christmas day, so sat down with coffee and cream to open them this morning. Highlights include the fluffy sheepskin slippers from Ma and Pa (very much needed at the moment) and these felt cut-outs of Lily and Oscar. I thought they were fab, so they are now lining our stairs!

The Golden Spoon

To most, this is a spoon for serving curry borrowed from dAAwAt, the finest Indian restaurant on the planet. To members of the BTMS, this is one of the greatest awards one can receive in an otherwise patchy betting career. It was with great excitement that I opened the airmail parcel from Bermuda to reveal the great trophy - earned when I finally picked one right (at terrific odds of 35:1). My sole new year's resolution is to hold onto it for the year!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning - champagne and pressies.

Our christmas tree was a bunch of flowers bought from Columbia Road the day before, but was laced with some kiwi trinkets: a silver fern bauble and a pohutukawa fairy.

The Queen (and her message) looking gorgeous in lime green:

The Christmas feast - thoroughly spoilt by Karl and Kim who laid on the best spread, all washed down with Moet and mulled wine :)