And it's bloody freezing. Massive frost this morning as I walked to the train. I think it is supposed to get to a massive high of 2C today. Glad I'm inside most of the day.
Still taking a bit of getting used to it being dusk at 4pm, and pitch black by the time I walk to the train at 4:30ish.
New job is ok, but will be happy to move on at the end of the contract. Still, keeps the wolf from the door and all that.
Kim's brother Andy and his GF are over from Oz and staying with us at the moment. They are really struggling with the cold I think. Was in the 30's when they left.
Kims parents arrive tomorrow, and it's my last day of work for the year so will be in a festive mood. Can't wait.
We are going to London on Sunday to enjoy the madness, and see the Xmas lights which are fantastic apparently, then we have Xmas with all of Kims family at Steve and Pennys place in Market Harborough. Should be good, and Kim is loving having all her family in the same place. First time for a few years.
On boxing day we are probably going to a football match in Coventry - weather permitting. They don't have a covered stand! Coventry City are a pretty big club, and have only just dropped out of the premier league after being in the top flight for 26 years I think it was, so should be a good experience. We have been trying to get to Anfield, but tickets are hard to come by and the way Liverpool are playing at the moment, not sure I want to see a loss!
We fly out to Slovenia for S + P's wedding on the 27th - strike action permitting. The BAA staff are threatening to strike so that has caused a few headaches for all involved. Plan B is to fly from Birmingham or Leicester to Venice and train from Venice to Slovenia. Hopefully it won't come to that.
No real other news at this stage. We are all well, Madison is growing up really fast. Her vocabulary is really improving, she can say almost 100 words at last count. Favorite ones are cool, wow and more!
Anyway Merry Xmas to all and we will see you all next year (sometime)
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Another Week, Another Job
Started a new contract this week, this one will see me through the dead Dec-Feb time in the contracting world over here, so that's good.
Can't really go into specifics of who or what doing (NDA's etc), but it's based in Northampton which is about 25 minutes by train from Rugby.
Decided to take the train because it allows Kim to have the car, and it's fairly painless for me - I work in Central Northampton so parking would be an issue. It also means I have about a 20 minute walk to and from the train station and 10 minutes either way from train station to work. Gotta be good. Except on day 1 with the train it was 45minutes late! Not a great way to start a new job, worrying about being late. Luckily I took the earlier train so just got to work on time.
Northampton itself is a pretty nondescript place from what I can tell.
Nothing much else happening at the moment. We did go to the MPH show in Birmingham a few weeks ago which was awesome. Photos Here
Winter is definitely just around the corner. Was dark today by 4:30 which is a bit of a shock! Not too cold yet and the house has double glazing and central heating so that's all good. Don't know why this isn't more prevalent in NZ to be honest.
Can't really go into specifics of who or what doing (NDA's etc), but it's based in Northampton which is about 25 minutes by train from Rugby.
Decided to take the train because it allows Kim to have the car, and it's fairly painless for me - I work in Central Northampton so parking would be an issue. It also means I have about a 20 minute walk to and from the train station and 10 minutes either way from train station to work. Gotta be good. Except on day 1 with the train it was 45minutes late! Not a great way to start a new job, worrying about being late. Luckily I took the earlier train so just got to work on time.
Northampton itself is a pretty nondescript place from what I can tell.
Nothing much else happening at the moment. We did go to the MPH show in Birmingham a few weeks ago which was awesome. Photos Here
Winter is definitely just around the corner. Was dark today by 4:30 which is a bit of a shock! Not too cold yet and the house has double glazing and central heating so that's all good. Don't know why this isn't more prevalent in NZ to be honest.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tower of London
Spent last weekend in London, the highlight was going to the tower of London.
For some reason I thought the tower was one of the "Tower" buildings on the Tower of London bridge. It turns out that it is a castle and surrounding buildings, some of which date back to the 10th Century.
The ToL is a cool place to visit, because there is so much to see. Each tower/building has separate displays such as Armory, Torture devices, centuries old graffiti, the actual cells they used o hold the prisoners, including the one that Walter Raleigh was held in for ten years - which was pretty luxurious considering. The highlight of the trip though would have to be the Crown Jewels. They are amazing - kept in a walk in Vault with 2 foot thick steel doors - there was more gold and diamonds in than I could imagine existed in one place. Including the second largest diamond in the world at 560 carats!
Oh and they keep Ravens on site which,as legend says, if they ever left the Empire would crumble. I don't know about that, but I do know I wouldn't want to be swooped by one on my bike - about twice the size of a Magpie and looked twice as mean.
For some reason I thought the tower was one of the "Tower" buildings on the Tower of London bridge. It turns out that it is a castle and surrounding buildings, some of which date back to the 10th Century.
The ToL is a cool place to visit, because there is so much to see. Each tower/building has separate displays such as Armory, Torture devices, centuries old graffiti, the actual cells they used o hold the prisoners, including the one that Walter Raleigh was held in for ten years - which was pretty luxurious considering. The highlight of the trip though would have to be the Crown Jewels. They are amazing - kept in a walk in Vault with 2 foot thick steel doors - there was more gold and diamonds in than I could imagine existed in one place. Including the second largest diamond in the world at 560 carats!
Oh and they keep Ravens on site which,as legend says, if they ever left the Empire would crumble. I don't know about that, but I do know I wouldn't want to be swooped by one on my bike - about twice the size of a Magpie and looked twice as mean.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Ireland Day 2: Derry, Giants Causeway
Today we drove to the Giants Causeway to view the magnificent natural structures. It also gave us an opportunity to try out Madison's back pack. The cause way is to rocky to take a buggy.
The drive to the Giants Causeway is about an hour from where we were staying, so we got a pretty good look at the countryside which was very like New Zealand. The two things about Ireland that have struck us so far:
1) There are bloody tractors everywhere - even on the motorway
2) Once off the beaten track, the roading is terrible. Very narrow and in ill repair as a rule. Probably because of 1)...
Driving through little villages and hamlets in Northern Ireland is strange too. They are very patriotic as in British and English flags flying proudly. Way more so than on the mainland. I guess after such a struggle they want to something to show for it.
Oh and a little history. Derry is also know as Londonderry. In the North the road signs all say Londonderry and in the Republic they say Derry. Also some signs have been vandalised to remove the London part. The original name was Derry, but when a bunch of London landowners paid for the city walls the name was changed to Londonderry in respect to them. History here
Anyway, we arrived at the Giants Causeway about 10:30 which was a good time. It was a public holiday in NI, so I think it was a little busier than normal, but not too bad. There is a bit of a walk from the carpark, but not too bad. There is even a bus for the lardy americans.
The causeway itself is formed from lava flows cooling or something. It is awesome and quite un-worldy. The pictures on the net etc, don't do it justice. Not much point trying to explain in words, but suffice to say it's well worth going to if you are ever in Ireland.
On the way back we stopped off at the Bushmills Whisky Distillery which would let Madison do the tour so stuff them. Jamisons is way better anyway.
.
The drive to the Giants Causeway is about an hour from where we were staying, so we got a pretty good look at the countryside which was very like New Zealand. The two things about Ireland that have struck us so far:
1) There are bloody tractors everywhere - even on the motorway
2) Once off the beaten track, the roading is terrible. Very narrow and in ill repair as a rule. Probably because of 1)...
Driving through little villages and hamlets in Northern Ireland is strange too. They are very patriotic as in British and English flags flying proudly. Way more so than on the mainland. I guess after such a struggle they want to something to show for it.
Oh and a little history. Derry is also know as Londonderry. In the North the road signs all say Londonderry and in the Republic they say Derry. Also some signs have been vandalised to remove the London part. The original name was Derry, but when a bunch of London landowners paid for the city walls the name was changed to Londonderry in respect to them. History here
Anyway, we arrived at the Giants Causeway about 10:30 which was a good time. It was a public holiday in NI, so I think it was a little busier than normal, but not too bad. There is a bit of a walk from the carpark, but not too bad. There is even a bus for the lardy americans.
The causeway itself is formed from lava flows cooling or something. It is awesome and quite un-worldy. The pictures on the net etc, don't do it justice. Not much point trying to explain in words, but suffice to say it's well worth going to if you are ever in Ireland.
On the way back we stopped off at the Bushmills Whisky Distillery which would let Madison do the tour so stuff them. Jamisons is way better anyway.
.
Ireland - Day 1
Early start as we flew out of Birmingham at about 7:20am. Quick flight to Dublin - around 50 minutes and off to find our rental car.
We ordered a VW Golf (I thought) but was a little disappointed when car was Kia Cee'd. Had to go to other part to pick up a car seat for Madison. The seat wasn't there so had to wait for it to show up, and when it did it was unsafe. They gave us a new one and about 90 minutes after we got there we were on our way.
From Dublin we drove to Belfast City Centre. Since the "troubles" have ceased, Belfast has a new lease on life and has new buildings going up everywhere. It's not what you would call a pretty city, but given the history, that's understandable.
We did the "bombs and bullets" taxi tour. This is a tour around the trouble spots of the cities bad old days, including the incredible murals that you have no doubt seen before. The town is divided into two sections, the Catholic side and the Protestant side. It is divided by a 20ft high "peace" wall, as in keep the peace rather than create peace. The wall is still standing today. Both sides are almost mirror opposites, with the bunting (little flags etc) on the Unionist side being red, white and blue and flags of England Scotland and Wales, and the Ulster unionist flags, and on the Republican side the colours are Green, White and Orange.
It's all very surreal and I'm glad we went, but I really can't get my head around the level of hatred, death and I guess courage that was prevalent at the time. Personally, I don't have a view one way or the other, I prefer to think about the needless tit for tat killings and the innocent people that were caught up in the middle of it all, just trying to go about their lives. These people are the real heroes in conflicts such as this, and are the people we should be remembering.
Anyway, it had a profound effect on both of us, and I guess it drives home how good most of our lives are, and that perhaps we take it all for granted. Food for thought perhaps.
After the tour we had a bite to eat, and drove to Derry for our first night.
We ordered a VW Golf (I thought) but was a little disappointed when car was Kia Cee'd. Had to go to other part to pick up a car seat for Madison. The seat wasn't there so had to wait for it to show up, and when it did it was unsafe. They gave us a new one and about 90 minutes after we got there we were on our way.
From Dublin we drove to Belfast City Centre. Since the "troubles" have ceased, Belfast has a new lease on life and has new buildings going up everywhere. It's not what you would call a pretty city, but given the history, that's understandable.
We did the "bombs and bullets" taxi tour. This is a tour around the trouble spots of the cities bad old days, including the incredible murals that you have no doubt seen before. The town is divided into two sections, the Catholic side and the Protestant side. It is divided by a 20ft high "peace" wall, as in keep the peace rather than create peace. The wall is still standing today. Both sides are almost mirror opposites, with the bunting (little flags etc) on the Unionist side being red, white and blue and flags of England Scotland and Wales, and the Ulster unionist flags, and on the Republican side the colours are Green, White and Orange.
It's all very surreal and I'm glad we went, but I really can't get my head around the level of hatred, death and I guess courage that was prevalent at the time. Personally, I don't have a view one way or the other, I prefer to think about the needless tit for tat killings and the innocent people that were caught up in the middle of it all, just trying to go about their lives. These people are the real heroes in conflicts such as this, and are the people we should be remembering.
Anyway, it had a profound effect on both of us, and I guess it drives home how good most of our lives are, and that perhaps we take it all for granted. Food for thought perhaps.
After the tour we had a bite to eat, and drove to Derry for our first night.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
August Round-Up
Not had much free time recently, in fact didn't get to finish up posting about the Paris trip.
Anyway, we are off to Ireland early Sunday morning. We are flying into Dublin then collecting a rental. We are driving to Belfast, and then on to Derry the first day. Then going to the Giants Causeway and back to Derry the second night. On to Galway for the third night, then on to Killarney for two more nights and then back to Dublin to fly home Friday night.
Should get to see a lot of Ireland an really looking forward to it.
We have been reasonably quiet since the Paris trip, just knocking around home and seeing a few more local sights. Kim and Madison had a "girls weekend" away with friends in London one weekend. I went to the Transformers movie which was cool, although the cartoon was better.
I also finished my contract early at Alstec and moved on to NFU Mutual . Joined a team of 5 other contractors and one permanent staff member on a project to convert an old insurance app into newer technologies. So far, so good. The team is awesome, we all get on really well and outside of Google, you would struggle to get a team of better developers. Two of the guys have written books! It is a 3 month contract which will take me through to November.
NFU is situated just out of Stratford, where William Shakespeare is from. We went there after the interview for a quick look and was really really cool, and will definitely go back for a decent look.
Anyway that's all for now.
Anyway, we are off to Ireland early Sunday morning. We are flying into Dublin then collecting a rental. We are driving to Belfast, and then on to Derry the first day. Then going to the Giants Causeway and back to Derry the second night. On to Galway for the third night, then on to Killarney for two more nights and then back to Dublin to fly home Friday night.
Should get to see a lot of Ireland an really looking forward to it.
We have been reasonably quiet since the Paris trip, just knocking around home and seeing a few more local sights. Kim and Madison had a "girls weekend" away with friends in London one weekend. I went to the Transformers movie which was cool, although the cartoon was better.
I also finished my contract early at Alstec and moved on to NFU Mutual . Joined a team of 5 other contractors and one permanent staff member on a project to convert an old insurance app into newer technologies. So far, so good. The team is awesome, we all get on really well and outside of Google, you would struggle to get a team of better developers. Two of the guys have written books! It is a 3 month contract which will take me through to November.
NFU is situated just out of Stratford, where William Shakespeare is from. We went there after the interview for a quick look and was really really cool, and will definitely go back for a decent look.
Anyway that's all for now.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Paris Day 2
Big day ahead today. Kim's birthday too.
We got up early and took the metro to meet our tour bus. We had a bus tour through Paris, a boat tour of the Seine and then lunch up the Eiffel Tower.
The bus tour was ok, but the commentary kept dropping out. We checked out the Louvre amongst other things. Again Paris is stunning and one of those places you just have to see to do it justice.
The boat trip was something a little different and very enjoyable. You see a different side to a city from the water. Got spectacular views of Notre Dam and other notible buildings that I can't remember.
The highlight of the tour was lunch at the Eiffel Tower. Word of advice. If you are coming to Paris and want to go up the Tower, pre book. The queues were massive. We managed to jump to the front. We had a couple of hours to explore before lunch so we took the chance to get some snaps and look around. The one surprising thing about the Tower is that it is Brown. For some reason I thought it would be grey.
Lunch was good, although we had to share our table with a couple of rude Americans. They were the first Americans I have ever met who DIDN'T want to talk. Bonus was they didn't want to drink so Kim and I got to share a bottle of nice French Red.
We also got to see a massive lightening storm from up the Eiffel Tower. Very cool.
After lunch we walked from the ET to the Louvre. We were running a bit behind time so went straight to see the Mona Lisa. It's a little smaller than I thought, but tres cool, except the massive crowd of Americans taking photos. I wanted to see the Egyptian artifacts so we didn't get a chance to look at all the paintings before it closed. We planned to go back and do that on Tuesday - more on that later. Again, a word of advice : it would take a day or two to get around the Louvre so you have to pick and choose what you want to see. I would recommend setting side a whole day and get there early. We unfortunately didn't see much so will have to go back.
Tickets are cheap at 6 Euro per pavillion, of which there are 3 or 4.
Very tired after our big day, so back to the Hotel for a rest and tea.
We got up early and took the metro to meet our tour bus. We had a bus tour through Paris, a boat tour of the Seine and then lunch up the Eiffel Tower.
The bus tour was ok, but the commentary kept dropping out. We checked out the Louvre amongst other things. Again Paris is stunning and one of those places you just have to see to do it justice.
The boat trip was something a little different and very enjoyable. You see a different side to a city from the water. Got spectacular views of Notre Dam and other notible buildings that I can't remember.
The highlight of the tour was lunch at the Eiffel Tower. Word of advice. If you are coming to Paris and want to go up the Tower, pre book. The queues were massive. We managed to jump to the front. We had a couple of hours to explore before lunch so we took the chance to get some snaps and look around. The one surprising thing about the Tower is that it is Brown. For some reason I thought it would be grey.
Lunch was good, although we had to share our table with a couple of rude Americans. They were the first Americans I have ever met who DIDN'T want to talk. Bonus was they didn't want to drink so Kim and I got to share a bottle of nice French Red.
We also got to see a massive lightening storm from up the Eiffel Tower. Very cool.
After lunch we walked from the ET to the Louvre. We were running a bit behind time so went straight to see the Mona Lisa. It's a little smaller than I thought, but tres cool, except the massive crowd of Americans taking photos. I wanted to see the Egyptian artifacts so we didn't get a chance to look at all the paintings before it closed. We planned to go back and do that on Tuesday - more on that later. Again, a word of advice : it would take a day or two to get around the Louvre so you have to pick and choose what you want to see. I would recommend setting side a whole day and get there early. We unfortunately didn't see much so will have to go back.
Tickets are cheap at 6 Euro per pavillion, of which there are 3 or 4.
Very tired after our big day, so back to the Hotel for a rest and tea.
Paris day 1
We took the Eurostar from Waterloo to Paris. For those who don't know, the Eurostar is a TGV (High Speed Train) that goes through the chunnel. It reaches speeds upto 180mph through the chunnel.
After a 3 hour journey we arrived in Paris. First hurdle was ordering Metro tickets to get to our hotel. Luckily the ticket agents spoke English. 3 day unlimited pass on the Metro cost about 30Euro which was a bargain.
The Metro makes getting around Paris really easy, and even with the language barrier, we found it easier to navigate than the underground. Public transport when it works this well is brilliant.
We stayed at Hotel de Academe in the Latin district of Paris. The day porter was chatty and spoke away to us in English. The rumours about the French are not true it seems. The British GP was on so I caught a few minutes of that, which was weird watching in French...
After checking in and resting a bit we went across town to pick up our tickets for the tour we were doing, and the Museum and Monuments pass which allowed us to go to any Museum or Monument. Again we took the Metro, which we were getting the hang off by now.
We hadn't seen much of Paris until now. It is simply stunning. The architecture and grandeur is impossible to explain in words. Everywhere you look there is another famous building or icon. Amazing. We went for a walk down the Champs elyse to the Arch de Triomph. It's really cool seeing the things in person you have only ever seen on screen or in pictures before.
Took some cool shots and will post the Shutterfly address when I find it out.
After our walk we went to a restaurant to find a bite. I almost ordered raw steak! Food was ok and managed to get what we wanted with a mixture of English and our limited French. Dining out in Paris is very expensive. We only had mains and desert and it came in at almost 100 Euro!
After a 3 hour journey we arrived in Paris. First hurdle was ordering Metro tickets to get to our hotel. Luckily the ticket agents spoke English. 3 day unlimited pass on the Metro cost about 30Euro which was a bargain.
The Metro makes getting around Paris really easy, and even with the language barrier, we found it easier to navigate than the underground. Public transport when it works this well is brilliant.
We stayed at Hotel de Academe in the Latin district of Paris. The day porter was chatty and spoke away to us in English. The rumours about the French are not true it seems. The British GP was on so I caught a few minutes of that, which was weird watching in French...
After checking in and resting a bit we went across town to pick up our tickets for the tour we were doing, and the Museum and Monuments pass which allowed us to go to any Museum or Monument. Again we took the Metro, which we were getting the hang off by now.
We hadn't seen much of Paris until now. It is simply stunning. The architecture and grandeur is impossible to explain in words. Everywhere you look there is another famous building or icon. Amazing. We went for a walk down the Champs elyse to the Arch de Triomph. It's really cool seeing the things in person you have only ever seen on screen or in pictures before.
Took some cool shots and will post the Shutterfly address when I find it out.
After our walk we went to a restaurant to find a bite. I almost ordered raw steak! Food was ok and managed to get what we wanted with a mixture of English and our limited French. Dining out in Paris is very expensive. We only had mains and desert and it came in at almost 100 Euro!
Tour de France Prologue
Took the train to London to watch the Prologue for the Tour de France.
This year it was starting from London, with the route taking in Trafalgar square, Buck Palace, Hyde Park and finishing up the Mall.
The race itself started about 3pm, and we arrived at about 1pm. We got a posy on the 50m to go banner on the Mall, unfortunatley could only get about 6 rows back. A cyclist would go past and you would get a flash of color and that was about it.
The atmosphere more than made up for it though, it was incredible. Over 1 million people can create quite a buzz! We stood and watched for about an hour and went for a walk along the route and managed to see a little bit more. When we were leaving you go past the warm up and warm down area, so we got to see a few cyclists up close and the team cars with the bikes on the roof, so that was cool.
Something we will have to go back to next year and maybe catch an alpine stage.
This year it was starting from London, with the route taking in Trafalgar square, Buck Palace, Hyde Park and finishing up the Mall.
The race itself started about 3pm, and we arrived at about 1pm. We got a posy on the 50m to go banner on the Mall, unfortunatley could only get about 6 rows back. A cyclist would go past and you would get a flash of color and that was about it.
The atmosphere more than made up for it though, it was incredible. Over 1 million people can create quite a buzz! We stood and watched for about an hour and went for a walk along the route and managed to see a little bit more. When we were leaving you go past the warm up and warm down area, so we got to see a few cyclists up close and the team cars with the bikes on the roof, so that was cool.
Something we will have to go back to next year and maybe catch an alpine stage.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
English Summer
We've been fairly quiet over the last few weeks. It's been hard to go out and do stuff because it's pretty much rained all of June. It's been quite warm, but warm is no good if it rains all the fricken time. Two wet Summers in a row wasn't what we had in mind when we decided to come over for Summer.
We are off to the starting of the Tour de France this weekend. The Prologue is taking place around Buckingham palace and Hype park. Just hope it doesn't rain. The we are going to France for Kim's birthday which will be cool. Forecast isn't great, but it will be awesome either way. We are taking the Eurostar through the chunnel.
More to follow.
We are off to the starting of the Tour de France this weekend. The Prologue is taking place around Buckingham palace and Hype park. Just hope it doesn't rain. The we are going to France for Kim's birthday which will be cool. Forecast isn't great, but it will be awesome either way. We are taking the Eurostar through the chunnel.
More to follow.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
AA
Our English made French Peugeot shat itself this morning. Clutch gave way, luckily just outside work, so I managed to park it in the car park ok. Luckily we got Road Side rescue from the AA. For anybody going to do some driving in the UK, get Roadside assistance. It was pretty cheap - around 100 (can't find the pound symbol) for a year and a great piece of mind. Especially as most Kozis (Kiwis/Aussies) will buy a shitter and run it into the ground.
The AA guy came to work, towed the car to a garage, and organised a rental for me to get home in. The rental is free for 48 hours, which is all part of the policy. Anyway it is going to cost 237 to get the clutch replaced and should be ready tomorrow. Maybe not all English are useless!
So kudos to the AA. Made a potientially stressful situation bearable. Money well spent
The AA guy came to work, towed the car to a garage, and organised a rental for me to get home in. The rental is free for 48 hours, which is all part of the policy. Anyway it is going to cost 237 to get the clutch replaced and should be ready tomorrow. Maybe not all English are useless!
So kudos to the AA. Made a potientially stressful situation bearable. Money well spent
Day 3 - Road Trip
Today we had a god look around Salisbury Cathedral. Salisbury Cathedral was the original Cathedral built around 1200 and took 38 years to build. Most other Cathedrals were based on Salisbury Cathedral, and it is where the Magna Carta was written and signed. The Magna Carta was basically a set of rules that the Nobels decided to live by, basically a set of human rights. It's the forerunner to most major treaties that would come later, such as the Declaration of Independance. There is only 4 surviving documents in the world, and one is was in a chapel in the Salisbury Cathedral.
Inside the Cathedral is huge. It has several chapels inside, and the tombs of knights and bishops fom 1200 onwards. You get a real sense of history in this place. Check out http://sugruefamily.shutterfly.com for pictures, as they say a picture is worth 1000 words.
I didn't think it possible, but Salisbury was even better than Stonehenge. A must see for anyone visiting the UK.
Inside the Cathedral is huge. It has several chapels inside, and the tombs of knights and bishops fom 1200 onwards. You get a real sense of history in this place. Check out http://sugruefamily.shutterfly.com for pictures, as they say a picture is worth 1000 words.
I didn't think it possible, but Salisbury was even better than Stonehenge. A must see for anyone visiting the UK.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Day 2 - Road Trip
Today we set off early for our trip of the long weekend. Due to date issues with booking we stayed Sunday night instead of Saturday. Anyway, our plan was to take in Stonehenge, stay in Salisbury the night, then check out Salisbury Cathedral on Monday and a leisurely drive home.
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is situated in a district called Wiltshire, which is about 2 1/2 hours South West of Rugby, and just to the South West of London. We were driving along the road, turned a corner and bang, in the middle of a field is freaking Stonehenge. Was a bit of an anti-climax, because we weren't expecting to see it just standing there. Apparently plans are afoot to cover the road, and create a tunnel so you can only see it on foot, which would add to the experience.
Stonehenge itself is awesome. It's humbling to think that these stones were put there by men maybe up to 5000 years ago - no one is really sure. I thought it would be a little bigger than it was, but it is a must see nonetheless. Unfortunately, it was munting down (bloddy English weather!) so we probably didn't stay as long as we would have liked, but still saw it from all angles and took heaps of snaps. (more on that later).
After we got back in the car, we decided to go an see the lesser known Stone formation at a place called Avesbury. We drove thorugh several little towns to get there, one that was twinned with OAMA-FRICKEN-RU!! Frighteningly small world. The stones at Avesbury encompass a whole town, and the circumference would be, and I'm guessing here, maybe a mile. The cool thing is that they are just in a paddock, so you can touch the stones and get amoungst them. Unfortunately because it was still wet, we decided not to take the buggy into the field where the stones were. We will definately come back though.
The other man made attraction at Avesbury was a mound, about 40m high and 100m wide, made entirely by hand. I guess with no Internets or TV the people of the day had buggar all else to do?
After Avesbury, we drove to our Hotel in Salisbury, caught a bit and hit the hay. Tomorrow - Salisbury Cathedral.
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is situated in a district called Wiltshire, which is about 2 1/2 hours South West of Rugby, and just to the South West of London. We were driving along the road, turned a corner and bang, in the middle of a field is freaking Stonehenge. Was a bit of an anti-climax, because we weren't expecting to see it just standing there. Apparently plans are afoot to cover the road, and create a tunnel so you can only see it on foot, which would add to the experience.
Stonehenge itself is awesome. It's humbling to think that these stones were put there by men maybe up to 5000 years ago - no one is really sure. I thought it would be a little bigger than it was, but it is a must see nonetheless. Unfortunately, it was munting down (bloddy English weather!) so we probably didn't stay as long as we would have liked, but still saw it from all angles and took heaps of snaps. (more on that later).
After we got back in the car, we decided to go an see the lesser known Stone formation at a place called Avesbury. We drove thorugh several little towns to get there, one that was twinned with OAMA-FRICKEN-RU!! Frighteningly small world. The stones at Avesbury encompass a whole town, and the circumference would be, and I'm guessing here, maybe a mile. The cool thing is that they are just in a paddock, so you can touch the stones and get amoungst them. Unfortunately because it was still wet, we decided not to take the buggy into the field where the stones were. We will definately come back though.
The other man made attraction at Avesbury was a mound, about 40m high and 100m wide, made entirely by hand. I guess with no Internets or TV the people of the day had buggar all else to do?
After Avesbury, we drove to our Hotel in Salisbury, caught a bit and hit the hay. Tomorrow - Salisbury Cathedral.
More Bank Holiday Fun - Day 1
Last weekend was the second Bank Holiday weekend for May, great for holidays but not great for a contractor. Anyway, on Saturday we went to Nottingham for lunch. Nottingham is about an hour up the motorway and is a little smaller than Christchurch with about 275,000 people.
It has a canal running through the middle of it and the main center is quite nice. It's just another town really and the main reason we went was to drop some people off so they could pick up their car from a garage. Wouldn't hurry back to be honest.
Nottingham has one redeeming factor - it has an IKEA. Think Warehouse but only for furniture and very good quality stuff. Each IKEA store has all the products built so you can see them. The novel thing is that instead of just having them in an open plan warehouse, they are setup as you would use them. For example they have several different kitchens with different style drawers and counters and tables etc. So you could buy the whole kitchen or just a dish rack.
It is very nice quality and surprisingly cheap. We bought a table and chair set that would probably cost $3-400 in NZ, but was 39.99 I think. The only caveat is you have to build it yourself, but if you're handy with a screw driver then Robert's your mothers brother.
On the way home we passed a sports field, where you would not believe it, there was a game of Aussie Rules in progress. Unbelievable!
It has a canal running through the middle of it and the main center is quite nice. It's just another town really and the main reason we went was to drop some people off so they could pick up their car from a garage. Wouldn't hurry back to be honest.
Nottingham has one redeeming factor - it has an IKEA. Think Warehouse but only for furniture and very good quality stuff. Each IKEA store has all the products built so you can see them. The novel thing is that instead of just having them in an open plan warehouse, they are setup as you would use them. For example they have several different kitchens with different style drawers and counters and tables etc. So you could buy the whole kitchen or just a dish rack.
It is very nice quality and surprisingly cheap. We bought a table and chair set that would probably cost $3-400 in NZ, but was 39.99 I think. The only caveat is you have to build it yourself, but if you're handy with a screw driver then Robert's your mothers brother.
On the way home we passed a sports field, where you would not believe it, there was a game of Aussie Rules in progress. Unbelievable!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Rugby
Have finally had a chance to sit down and catch up with a few things. Just realised that I haven't posted any info about Rugby, where we now live.
We live in a "new build". A new build is basically what we would call a sub division in NZ. The place we live in is a two storey, three bed place not far from Rugby School. Rugby school is of course where the game started, when Bill Ellis picked up a soccer ball and decided to go for a run. God bless him.
The one thing I didn't know about Rugby is that the famous Gilbert ball brand started in Rugby too. Rugby the game is central to Rugby the town these days. The town logo is a Rugby ball and there is a Rugby Museum and a Rugby walk of fame - a bit like the Hollywood walk of fame, but for Rugby players. Oh and Johnny Snapinhalfison is number 1. What a joke.
Rugby has a population of about 90,000 people and is in the Warwickshire region in West Midlands. Warwickshire is also famous for Bill Shakespear and the Earl of Warwick, from Warwick castle which is Britain's most visited Castle.
Erm that's about it really. Rugby is fairly central to most things - 45 mins from Birmingham, 1 hr by train from London, 2 hours to Stonehenge, and about 30 minutes to Silverstone!
Oh and the most important thing about Rugby is we have a spare room and it's always free to our Antipodean mates to come and use!
We live in a "new build". A new build is basically what we would call a sub division in NZ. The place we live in is a two storey, three bed place not far from Rugby School. Rugby school is of course where the game started, when Bill Ellis picked up a soccer ball and decided to go for a run. God bless him.
The one thing I didn't know about Rugby is that the famous Gilbert ball brand started in Rugby too. Rugby the game is central to Rugby the town these days. The town logo is a Rugby ball and there is a Rugby Museum and a Rugby walk of fame - a bit like the Hollywood walk of fame, but for Rugby players. Oh and Johnny Snapinhalfison is number 1. What a joke.
Rugby has a population of about 90,000 people and is in the Warwickshire region in West Midlands. Warwickshire is also famous for Bill Shakespear and the Earl of Warwick, from Warwick castle which is Britain's most visited Castle.
Erm that's about it really. Rugby is fairly central to most things - 45 mins from Birmingham, 1 hr by train from London, 2 hours to Stonehenge, and about 30 minutes to Silverstone!
Oh and the most important thing about Rugby is we have a spare room and it's always free to our Antipodean mates to come and use!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
FOTC
The pilot episode from the FOTC new US TV show is up. Funny.
http://www.hbo.com/conchords/
not sure how it will go down in the States with the dry humour but hope it goes really well.
http://www.hbo.com/conchords/
not sure how it will go down in the States with the dry humour but hope it goes really well.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Bank Holiday fun
Monday (yesterday) was a bank holiday so we packed up the car (little Pug 306 Hatch) and drove down to London to stay with some friends.
A quick surf to Google Maps and we were off. It was a pretty easy journey really. Down the M1 for about 70 miles into London follow the south-eastern ring road and a few turns later we where there. Total journey time was about 2 hours. Traveling down the M1 is fast, but you can't relax as you would on SH1. There is 3 or four lanes of constant traffic and you have to keep your wits about you. I usually sit on a comfortable 70-80 mph, but cars fly past on the outside lane probably going 100+mph.
Anyway, once in London we drove in Central London for some shopping. Well to clarify. I didn't drive into London, Mark who has been here a year took those honours, and again we didn't shop. Kim was meeting her sister in town to go shopping for bridesmaids dresses so we left them all to it and went for a look around and a couple of lagers.
Finally found the Apple store, which was impressive. Two floors of all the bits and pieces Apple makes. The just do it so well, which is not surprising being Apple! The whole bottom floor is for you to play on all the gear and you don't get bothered by sales staff. If you require assistance you can go upstairs and ask for help - they even run free training sessions.
Once we pulled ourselves away from there we looked around a few other stores and went for a beer or two and watched the world go by. A couple of Temuka boys shooting the breeze in the middle of London! Classy eh.
The girls finally finished shopping around 4 and we drove back and had a Braii. Which is basically a BBQ but South African way of saying it. (Mark and Vicki live with yarpies).
On Sunday we had a slap up English breakfast and said our good byes and headed to Bluewater which is off the M25 to the East of London. It is a HUGE shopping mall with over 330 shops and 40 restaurants. It took us 5 hours to look around and amazingly I didn't complain once! I bought some work trousers and a tie, Madison got a couple of toys and a swimsuit and Kim bought some towels. Flash eh!
Monday we just hung out at home, did the Supermarket shopping and watched the final of the snooker.
All in all a good weekend. There is another Bank holiday weekend in two weeks, and hopefully we might a little further.
A quick surf to Google Maps and we were off. It was a pretty easy journey really. Down the M1 for about 70 miles into London follow the south-eastern ring road and a few turns later we where there. Total journey time was about 2 hours. Traveling down the M1 is fast, but you can't relax as you would on SH1. There is 3 or four lanes of constant traffic and you have to keep your wits about you. I usually sit on a comfortable 70-80 mph, but cars fly past on the outside lane probably going 100+mph.
Anyway, once in London we drove in Central London for some shopping. Well to clarify. I didn't drive into London, Mark who has been here a year took those honours, and again we didn't shop. Kim was meeting her sister in town to go shopping for bridesmaids dresses so we left them all to it and went for a look around and a couple of lagers.
Finally found the Apple store, which was impressive. Two floors of all the bits and pieces Apple makes. The just do it so well, which is not surprising being Apple! The whole bottom floor is for you to play on all the gear and you don't get bothered by sales staff. If you require assistance you can go upstairs and ask for help - they even run free training sessions.
Once we pulled ourselves away from there we looked around a few other stores and went for a beer or two and watched the world go by. A couple of Temuka boys shooting the breeze in the middle of London! Classy eh.
The girls finally finished shopping around 4 and we drove back and had a Braii. Which is basically a BBQ but South African way of saying it. (Mark and Vicki live with yarpies).
On Sunday we had a slap up English breakfast and said our good byes and headed to Bluewater which is off the M25 to the East of London. It is a HUGE shopping mall with over 330 shops and 40 restaurants. It took us 5 hours to look around and amazingly I didn't complain once! I bought some work trousers and a tie, Madison got a couple of toys and a swimsuit and Kim bought some towels. Flash eh!
Monday we just hung out at home, did the Supermarket shopping and watched the final of the snooker.
All in all a good weekend. There is another Bank holiday weekend in two weeks, and hopefully we might a little further.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Easter: Day 4
On Easter Monday we went to Warwick Castle. It was a 40-60 minute drive from MH situated in the historic town of Warwick.
Will Shakespare is from Warwick and did his best work just up the road in Stratford-on-avon. It is full of Tudor era houses where not one wall lines up with the other! Makes you sense the history, when someones house has been standing longer than our country has been in existence (well officially anyway).
Anyway managed to join a queue of about a million people. The English LOVE queuing. Think fat kids and cake and you are starting to get the picture. The English will join a queue, for example, at the post office, even if the don't have anything to post. If you stand with friends in single file it won't take long for a queue to join behind you! You may laugh, but I'm not joking - happened to us at Marks and Spencer once.
Anyway, we managed to usurp the queue because we had Madison. (I knew having kids must have a pay off now and then).
The Castle itself has evolved over the centuries, but the oldest part of it dates back to the 12th century. We're talking Blackadder I days. Man thats old. Although I think some of the people towards the front of the queue might have been there for the opening ceremony!
There are so many things to see at the castle. Each part is self contained, and each part had it's own queue. Suffice to say we didn't get a chance to see the whole thing this time. The bits we did see where awesome. There was a mock battle, complete with Knights and Archers.
There was a tour of the renovated part of the Castle which dates back to 1920. The main hall was amazing, lined with suits of armour.
The thing that struck me was how small the Armour was. I guess people have grown over the last 800 years.
Great day, and we will be back.
Will Shakespare is from Warwick and did his best work just up the road in Stratford-on-avon. It is full of Tudor era houses where not one wall lines up with the other! Makes you sense the history, when someones house has been standing longer than our country has been in existence (well officially anyway).
Anyway managed to join a queue of about a million people. The English LOVE queuing. Think fat kids and cake and you are starting to get the picture. The English will join a queue, for example, at the post office, even if the don't have anything to post. If you stand with friends in single file it won't take long for a queue to join behind you! You may laugh, but I'm not joking - happened to us at Marks and Spencer once.
Anyway, we managed to usurp the queue because we had Madison. (I knew having kids must have a pay off now and then).
The Castle itself has evolved over the centuries, but the oldest part of it dates back to the 12th century. We're talking Blackadder I days. Man thats old. Although I think some of the people towards the front of the queue might have been there for the opening ceremony!
There are so many things to see at the castle. Each part is self contained, and each part had it's own queue. Suffice to say we didn't get a chance to see the whole thing this time. The bits we did see where awesome. There was a mock battle, complete with Knights and Archers.
There was a tour of the renovated part of the Castle which dates back to 1920. The main hall was amazing, lined with suits of armour.
The thing that struck me was how small the Armour was. I guess people have grown over the last 800 years.
Great day, and we will be back.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Easter Weekend: Day 3
Today we decided to go to a traditional Easter show, which took us to the Kelmarsh county fair. Normally if I was in NZ, I would rather pull my toenails off with pliers, but we're here to have a look around, so I agreed to go.
My navigator got us a little lost on the way there - a 10 minute journey took about 30, but it was a good look around the Leicestershire countryside. It is very similar to South Canterbury - rolling hills and very green. The obvious differences are the lack of stock grazing and the backdrop of the Southern Alps.
We finally arrived at Kelmarsh which is a tiny, one pub village. The fair is held on the "Manor" of a local titled person, but the it was probably similar in size to the Easter shows in rural NZ. But thats where the similarities end. NZ Easter shows are all about who has the best sheep and who has the moleskins with airtek shirts.
The Kelmarsh fair was more about entertainment, with 4 "rings" with displays going all the time. NZ shows tend to be a little more commercial - trying to sell you a new tractor etc.
We saw a display about rabbit hunting, and how it used to be illegal to have Greyhounds, so the locals bred a new bred to get around this. The breed is called a Lurch or Lurchers and they look like a head on between a greyhound and a shrub. Very weird looking dogs, but very good at rabbit hunting apparently. The highlight of this demonstration was a race between a Pidgeon and a Lurch!
The Pidgeon won by a nose BTW.
The other highlight was the birds of prey demonstration where a Falcon was shown off. They are almost as awesome as the motor vehicle namesake! The interesting thing I learnt is that they aren't strong enough to fly straight up and have to go up looking for up draft in concentral circles.
After that much excitment in one day, we decided to go home and rest for our visit to Warwick Castle on Monday.
Oh and another DB9 in the car park!
My navigator got us a little lost on the way there - a 10 minute journey took about 30, but it was a good look around the Leicestershire countryside. It is very similar to South Canterbury - rolling hills and very green. The obvious differences are the lack of stock grazing and the backdrop of the Southern Alps.
We finally arrived at Kelmarsh which is a tiny, one pub village. The fair is held on the "Manor" of a local titled person, but the it was probably similar in size to the Easter shows in rural NZ. But thats where the similarities end. NZ Easter shows are all about who has the best sheep and who has the moleskins with airtek shirts.
The Kelmarsh fair was more about entertainment, with 4 "rings" with displays going all the time. NZ shows tend to be a little more commercial - trying to sell you a new tractor etc.
We saw a display about rabbit hunting, and how it used to be illegal to have Greyhounds, so the locals bred a new bred to get around this. The breed is called a Lurch or Lurchers and they look like a head on between a greyhound and a shrub. Very weird looking dogs, but very good at rabbit hunting apparently. The highlight of this demonstration was a race between a Pidgeon and a Lurch!
The Pidgeon won by a nose BTW.
The other highlight was the birds of prey demonstration where a Falcon was shown off. They are almost as awesome as the motor vehicle namesake! The interesting thing I learnt is that they aren't strong enough to fly straight up and have to go up looking for up draft in concentral circles.
After that much excitment in one day, we decided to go home and rest for our visit to Warwick Castle on Monday.
Oh and another DB9 in the car park!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Easter Weekend: Day 2
Today we took the Train to London. We booked seats in advance because we were expecting a full train, but it wasn't too bad. I guess people like to spend time outside London on their days off.
Anyway, we met friends at St Pancras and took a quick tube stop to Oxford / Regent St.
We were told before hand that it would be manic, but it was fairly quiet by London standards. Which was nice.
After a shop at Hamleys toy store, we had a bite to eat, and then walked down to Trafalger Square and the Mall. To say that the walk down to the Mall is awesome is a bit of an understatement. We were a bit rushed for time so didn't take it all in, but we really enjoyed our walk.
We had a look at Buck Palace, but Liz and Phil were out so didn't get to have tea with them. By comparison to the other architechture in the Mall, Buckingham Palace is looking a little tired to be honest. English understatement and humility at it's best.
We then walked down to Harrods, which was manic. Last minute Easter shopping I think. I bought a couple of Easter Eggs and we got out fast. We will return when it's a little more buggy friendly.
While we were waiting to cross the street to go into Harrods, there was a Ferrari 430, Lamborghini Gallardo and Aston Martin DB9 waiting at the same round about. Bit flasher than Timaru of a Saturday!
We had afternoon tea at Harvey Nichols which is famous apparently and then took the tube back to St Pancras. The tube was horrible. Each carriage was absolutely crammed with people. Absolutely no personal space, and Madison was starring at about 50 knee caps. She didn't seem to mind too much all the same, but we weren't that keen.
Once off the tram we strolled down to St Pancras and got on the train to home. Good day.
Anyway, we met friends at St Pancras and took a quick tube stop to Oxford / Regent St.
We were told before hand that it would be manic, but it was fairly quiet by London standards. Which was nice.
After a shop at Hamleys toy store, we had a bite to eat, and then walked down to Trafalger Square and the Mall. To say that the walk down to the Mall is awesome is a bit of an understatement. We were a bit rushed for time so didn't take it all in, but we really enjoyed our walk.
We had a look at Buck Palace, but Liz and Phil were out so didn't get to have tea with them. By comparison to the other architechture in the Mall, Buckingham Palace is looking a little tired to be honest. English understatement and humility at it's best.
We then walked down to Harrods, which was manic. Last minute Easter shopping I think. I bought a couple of Easter Eggs and we got out fast. We will return when it's a little more buggy friendly.
While we were waiting to cross the street to go into Harrods, there was a Ferrari 430, Lamborghini Gallardo and Aston Martin DB9 waiting at the same round about. Bit flasher than Timaru of a Saturday!
We had afternoon tea at Harvey Nichols which is famous apparently and then took the tube back to St Pancras. The tube was horrible. Each carriage was absolutely crammed with people. Absolutely no personal space, and Madison was starring at about 50 knee caps. She didn't seem to mind too much all the same, but we weren't that keen.
Once off the tram we strolled down to St Pancras and got on the train to home. Good day.
Easter Weekend: Day 1
Today we drove to Rugby to have a look around. We are thinking of moving there, as it's a good central location and only 30-40 mins drive to my work. It has a bit more going on than Market Harborough.
It is a fairly large town, bordering on a City and it's claim to fame is well fairly obvious - when William Web Ellis (Internet to his friends) picked up a soccer ball and went for a run, or so the fable goes.
After lunching in Rugby we went to a lake, which I can't remember the name of. It was fairly small by NZ standards - 600 Acres but it has a road around the outside and is buggy friendly, so there were hundreds of families out for a walk. The only downside was that flies hang around in Swarms and dive bomb you. It is horrible.
Makes Australia look tame by comparison, but the English don't seem to mind. They are a strange lot as I have mentioned before. Oh and everything, I mean everything was open on Good Friday which was a surprise.
It is a fairly large town, bordering on a City and it's claim to fame is well fairly obvious - when William Web Ellis (Internet to his friends) picked up a soccer ball and went for a run, or so the fable goes.
After lunching in Rugby we went to a lake, which I can't remember the name of. It was fairly small by NZ standards - 600 Acres but it has a road around the outside and is buggy friendly, so there were hundreds of families out for a walk. The only downside was that flies hang around in Swarms and dive bomb you. It is horrible.
Makes Australia look tame by comparison, but the English don't seem to mind. They are a strange lot as I have mentioned before. Oh and everything, I mean everything was open on Good Friday which was a surprise.
Monday, April 2, 2007
First Day At Work
Tpday was my first day at Alstec. They are based in Whetstone, which is a town/suburb of Leicester. We haven't got a car yet, so I had to take the 7:19 train to Leicester, then get the 8:00 number 84 bus to Whetstone.
First F-Up of the day was getting off the bus one stop too early. 60 minutes of walking later I finally found the Alstec complex! Luckily (and unbeknown to me) it was an induction session and I only missed the propagander video. I was fair panicking though!
That went through to lunch. I was taken upstairs into my area just before lunch, but it is company policy for everyone on site to have lunch at 12:30 so I didn't get to meet anyone until 1:30. Also company policy - employees must take an hour for lunch.
Initial impressions are good. Nice people, and it seems to be very interesting and varied work. I will be working on the Airports side of things, with the baggage handling systems, probably doing a fair bit of Handheld programming in C#. More about that to follow.
Work wound up at 5:00 and I rushed to get to the 5:05 bus back into Leicester. I asked some guy who was at a bus stop if it was the right one. He said yes. It wasn't. I found the correct one and caught the 5:35 into Leicester which got in just after 6pm, so I missed the 6:05 train back to Harborough. I also managed to take a wrong turn and missed the train station too, and spent the next 45 minutes trying to find it again.
England is a nice place, but the road signs are simply awful. They are too small and in random places. It is almost impossible to find your way around without a map. Even with a map it isn't easy. I of course thought I knew where I was going and didn't take a map...
Anyway, hopefully tomorrow will be easier.
First F-Up of the day was getting off the bus one stop too early. 60 minutes of walking later I finally found the Alstec complex! Luckily (and unbeknown to me) it was an induction session and I only missed the propagander video. I was fair panicking though!
That went through to lunch. I was taken upstairs into my area just before lunch, but it is company policy for everyone on site to have lunch at 12:30 so I didn't get to meet anyone until 1:30. Also company policy - employees must take an hour for lunch.
Initial impressions are good. Nice people, and it seems to be very interesting and varied work. I will be working on the Airports side of things, with the baggage handling systems, probably doing a fair bit of Handheld programming in C#. More about that to follow.
Work wound up at 5:00 and I rushed to get to the 5:05 bus back into Leicester. I asked some guy who was at a bus stop if it was the right one. He said yes. It wasn't. I found the correct one and caught the 5:35 into Leicester which got in just after 6pm, so I missed the 6:05 train back to Harborough. I also managed to take a wrong turn and missed the train station too, and spent the next 45 minutes trying to find it again.
England is a nice place, but the road signs are simply awful. They are too small and in random places. It is almost impossible to find your way around without a map. Even with a map it isn't easy. I of course thought I knew where I was going and didn't take a map...
Anyway, hopefully tomorrow will be easier.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Don't come for the coffee
The English are famous for Tea drinking. I can understand why now. The coffee here is disgusting. I have been to coffee shops in 3 different places - London, Leicester and Market Harborough and the coffee was terrible at all 3. The coffee was far too hot, and therefore tasted burnt, and the milk is not airated enough, so no matter what you order, you almost always end up with a flat white.
I have taken to drinking tea...
I have taken to drinking tea...
Job hunting in the UK
Job hunting can be a fun experience, or it can be harrowing. The current hot skills in the UK at the moment, appear to be ASP.NET/C#, Oracle related, or SAP. If you have those skills £300/day is an absolute minimum in London.
If you can get investment bank or financial experience on your C.V. then upwards of £500/day is not uncommon.
The best thing you can do is apply for a lot of jobs online, using www.jobserve.com, or www.jobsite.co.uk or www.theitjobboard.com.
I would recommend creating a profile on these sites and uploading your C.V. as the recruiters do use this to find C.V's. Get a cellphone and put that number on your C.V. as recruiters prefer to call people, infact most won't email.
The reason you should apply for heaps of jobs, is that it gets your C.V. in circulation to all the recruiters. It's not really like in New Zealand where you want to get a good relationship with one recruitment company, basically there is so many in the UK that you just go where the best job / rate is.
Once you have been posted to a job, the recruitment company you have dealt with, will do their best to keep you with them, as you are a "known commodity".
To maximize your hit rate with the recruiters search engines, make sure to use a lot of buzz words. I for example on the first page of my C.V. have a table with all the skillsets I have used with a rating and a years used column.
The only downside to this is you will get a lot of recruiters ringing, but it's better to have heaps than none at all.
The recruitment process
If you match some of the skills needed, the recruiter will no doubt put your C.V. forward. They have to ring you and ask before they do, and make sure your C.V. hasn't been put forward from another company. 99% of recruiters won't ring back if you aren't going to get an interview. This takes a bit of getting used to, as recruiters in NZ always give feedback. I guess it's a numbers thing, but it can be annoying. If you don't hear back from the recruiter within 2 or 3 days, you aren't going to.
I keep a journal of who has rung and for what job, and the rate and contract length. Potientially, you could be dealing with several recrutiers per day until you find work, so it's important to remember what you have applied for and where and for how much.
Interview process
The interview process seems to vary from role to role. Some companies decide off the C.V. and just want to double check, some companies have a many stepped process.
Usually, they will either set a test, or ask for a phone interview first. Then if you pass this, they will ask you for a face to face interview. Punctuality is not a string point in the UK. Don't be worried if you arrive on time, and you are waiting for up to 30 minutes. My advice would be not to plan more than two interviews on the same day. I planned two interviews within two hours of each other and had to leave the first part way through because I was going to be late for the second if I didn't.
Always wear a suit to the interview. The people interviewing you will more than likely not be wearing a suit, and you'll almost certainly not have to wear one in the job, but wear one anyway to the interview.
Be prepared to do an technical test at an interview. Not all do this, but it is starting to be more common. I personally think they are a waste of time. Most of the ones I have seen are multiple choice type questions. IMHO it is better to set a programming test rather than a multi guess test as it shows more, and most programmers these days don't remember what method names are - intellisense.
Anyway, again if unsuccessful you may not hear from the recruiter, so be aware of that. Typically, you should here back within a week. I usually get a vibe from interviews and ask if I am still in the running, or when I should expect a decision.
I hope these tips are valuable to someone and good luck. There is a world of opportunities contracting in the UK and I highly recommend it. It took me under a week to get my first offer, and I wasn't really trying that hard.
If you can get investment bank or financial experience on your C.V. then upwards of £500/day is not uncommon.
The best thing you can do is apply for a lot of jobs online, using www.jobserve.com, or www.jobsite.co.uk or www.theitjobboard.com.
I would recommend creating a profile on these sites and uploading your C.V. as the recruiters do use this to find C.V's. Get a cellphone and put that number on your C.V. as recruiters prefer to call people, infact most won't email.
The reason you should apply for heaps of jobs, is that it gets your C.V. in circulation to all the recruiters. It's not really like in New Zealand where you want to get a good relationship with one recruitment company, basically there is so many in the UK that you just go where the best job / rate is.
Once you have been posted to a job, the recruitment company you have dealt with, will do their best to keep you with them, as you are a "known commodity".
To maximize your hit rate with the recruiters search engines, make sure to use a lot of buzz words. I for example on the first page of my C.V. have a table with all the skillsets I have used with a rating and a years used column.
The only downside to this is you will get a lot of recruiters ringing, but it's better to have heaps than none at all.
The recruitment process
If you match some of the skills needed, the recruiter will no doubt put your C.V. forward. They have to ring you and ask before they do, and make sure your C.V. hasn't been put forward from another company. 99% of recruiters won't ring back if you aren't going to get an interview. This takes a bit of getting used to, as recruiters in NZ always give feedback. I guess it's a numbers thing, but it can be annoying. If you don't hear back from the recruiter within 2 or 3 days, you aren't going to.
I keep a journal of who has rung and for what job, and the rate and contract length. Potientially, you could be dealing with several recrutiers per day until you find work, so it's important to remember what you have applied for and where and for how much.
Interview process
The interview process seems to vary from role to role. Some companies decide off the C.V. and just want to double check, some companies have a many stepped process.
Usually, they will either set a test, or ask for a phone interview first. Then if you pass this, they will ask you for a face to face interview. Punctuality is not a string point in the UK. Don't be worried if you arrive on time, and you are waiting for up to 30 minutes. My advice would be not to plan more than two interviews on the same day. I planned two interviews within two hours of each other and had to leave the first part way through because I was going to be late for the second if I didn't.
Always wear a suit to the interview. The people interviewing you will more than likely not be wearing a suit, and you'll almost certainly not have to wear one in the job, but wear one anyway to the interview.
Be prepared to do an technical test at an interview. Not all do this, but it is starting to be more common. I personally think they are a waste of time. Most of the ones I have seen are multiple choice type questions. IMHO it is better to set a programming test rather than a multi guess test as it shows more, and most programmers these days don't remember what method names are - intellisense.
Anyway, again if unsuccessful you may not hear from the recruiter, so be aware of that. Typically, you should here back within a week. I usually get a vibe from interviews and ask if I am still in the running, or when I should expect a decision.
I hope these tips are valuable to someone and good luck. There is a world of opportunities contracting in the UK and I highly recommend it. It took me under a week to get my first offer, and I wasn't really trying that hard.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Hello London
Took the train into London today. Madison is not feeding, but is eating solids and water so no real need for concern. She is still not 100%, but much better which is good.
The train to London was easy to negotiate. Basically just find a seat and sit down and wait. We went in about 10am, so it wasn't that full. Did have to sit behind some annoying people having a brainstorming meeting. They were a Media/Marketing Company by the sounds of things but if their ideas were any indication, I wouldn't hire them to sell my dog.
Anyway, once at St Pancras you have to walk to Kings Cross station and take the underground a few stops to Oxford St / Regent St. The Underground really doesn't cater for buggies, so have to manhandle the buggy down escalators etc. It must be a pain to be in a wheel chair and try and get around.
Anyway, Regent St is simply amazing. The noise and crowds are awesome, especially for a Kiwi Boy! I did enjoy it though. The architecture is frankly awesome, and I spent a lot of time just looking at the buildings.
We went to HSBC to open the accounts. This was very easy, although Madison spewed her lunch on the office floor!
We went and had lunch at a typical English Diner. I of course had the English breakfast with pot of tea, for £4.75. Bargain.
After lunch we strolled along Regent St. Went into Hamleys and bought a few items, and then walked down Regent St and Window shopped. Must go back soon.
Took the tube at Piccadilly Station (keep feeling like I'm playing Monopoly) back to St Pancras and home. We had a Lager on the train on the way home, amazes me you can by Alcohol almost everywhere here. Even in the Post Shop!
The train to London was easy to negotiate. Basically just find a seat and sit down and wait. We went in about 10am, so it wasn't that full. Did have to sit behind some annoying people having a brainstorming meeting. They were a Media/Marketing Company by the sounds of things but if their ideas were any indication, I wouldn't hire them to sell my dog.
Anyway, once at St Pancras you have to walk to Kings Cross station and take the underground a few stops to Oxford St / Regent St. The Underground really doesn't cater for buggies, so have to manhandle the buggy down escalators etc. It must be a pain to be in a wheel chair and try and get around.
Anyway, Regent St is simply amazing. The noise and crowds are awesome, especially for a Kiwi Boy! I did enjoy it though. The architecture is frankly awesome, and I spent a lot of time just looking at the buildings.
We went to HSBC to open the accounts. This was very easy, although Madison spewed her lunch on the office floor!
We went and had lunch at a typical English Diner. I of course had the English breakfast with pot of tea, for £4.75. Bargain.
After lunch we strolled along Regent St. Went into Hamleys and bought a few items, and then walked down Regent St and Window shopped. Must go back soon.
Took the tube at Piccadilly Station (keep feeling like I'm playing Monopoly) back to St Pancras and home. We had a Lager on the train on the way home, amazes me you can by Alcohol almost everywhere here. Even in the Post Shop!
Market Harborough: Day 1
Madison was a little better today, but still very hot and not anywhere near her usual self.
We took her to the Doctors in the afternoon. After a little red tape we saw a doctor. She checked Madison out and found she had a temperature of 39C. She prescribed some ibuprofen and administered it straight away. After some tests, it was decided that Madison just had a gastro bug that would clear up in due course. it was a relief.
After that we went for a walk around the town center. Market Harborough is a small town in the Leicestershire region. It is home to about 10,000 people. The main center is typical English rural town, with a High street with shops, and newer areas with the chain stores, like Tescos and Sainsbury's.
The things we did note, is things are very cheap in England. If you convert them to NZ$ then they are similar, but once you are here you earn pretty much $ for £ anyway.
Also the supermarkets have full strength Alcohol! I bought a bottle of Sainsbury's labeled Kentucky Bourbon for £10. Tasted almost exactly the same as Jim Beam.
Anyway, better day today, and off to London tomorrow to open bank account.
We took her to the Doctors in the afternoon. After a little red tape we saw a doctor. She checked Madison out and found she had a temperature of 39C. She prescribed some ibuprofen and administered it straight away. After some tests, it was decided that Madison just had a gastro bug that would clear up in due course. it was a relief.
After that we went for a walk around the town center. Market Harborough is a small town in the Leicestershire region. It is home to about 10,000 people. The main center is typical English rural town, with a High street with shops, and newer areas with the chain stores, like Tescos and Sainsbury's.
The things we did note, is things are very cheap in England. If you convert them to NZ$ then they are similar, but once you are here you earn pretty much $ for £ anyway.
Also the supermarkets have full strength Alcohol! I bought a bottle of Sainsbury's labeled Kentucky Bourbon for £10. Tasted almost exactly the same as Jim Beam.
Anyway, better day today, and off to London tomorrow to open bank account.
Singapore to London
We boarded the 747 to Heathrow at about midday. It was the longest flight I have physically been on, and will be the longest flight. Madison got a high fever about half way in, and we were very worried. At the worst she was 38.7C.
Luckily for us, the cabin crew were simply amazing. We flew Singapore Air, and I can highly recommend them. They went over and above the call of duty. The not only gave us good advice, but kept us calm as well.
Kim's sister Penny was waiting for us at Heathrow. That place is a mad house, and we were glad to get out in one piece! It has 3 lifts to the carpark, and about 100 people waiting at anyone time. To make matters worse the lift is up and down, but it only goes 1 level up or down. To get to the 3rd level you have to walk 100m to another lift. Not a good introduction to a country.
The drive from London to Market Harborough was quick, and managed to sleep through most of it. Madison was a little better, but we were still worried about her, and made it very hard to enjoy the new sights.
Maybe tomorrow will be better.
Luckily for us, the cabin crew were simply amazing. We flew Singapore Air, and I can highly recommend them. They went over and above the call of duty. The not only gave us good advice, but kept us calm as well.
Kim's sister Penny was waiting for us at Heathrow. That place is a mad house, and we were glad to get out in one piece! It has 3 lifts to the carpark, and about 100 people waiting at anyone time. To make matters worse the lift is up and down, but it only goes 1 level up or down. To get to the 3rd level you have to walk 100m to another lift. Not a good introduction to a country.
The drive from London to Market Harborough was quick, and managed to sleep through most of it. Madison was a little better, but we were still worried about her, and made it very hard to enjoy the new sights.
Maybe tomorrow will be better.
Singapore: Day 2
After a reasonable nights sleep we decided to go get some breakfast and see a few sites. Breakfast was a buffet and simply fantastic.
After breakfast we decided to take the hop on hop off bus to the river and do a river tour. After waiting for 45 minutes in the stiffling heat (31C, 90%H) the bus arrived. We got on and it went 500m around the road, turned a corner and let us off!
The river tour was brief, but interesting. Some of the Architecture in Singapore is amazing. We had lunch at an "Amercian Diner" and then went for a tour to Sentosa Island.
Sentosa Island is stunning. It has amzaing views and (artificial) sandy beaches. It's an island by name only as we went there by bus! The tour guide Kamal was great and had us all in stitches. We went to Underwater world, which is very similar to Kelly Tarltons in Auckland, and the Singapore Museum.
The Museum was fairly boring and Madison was mobbed by Japanese tourists in the gift shop for about 15 minutes. One old lady took her off us for a cuddle at one point, which was a little strange!
We got a family photo with a Python outside the Museum and had a "New Zealand Natural" ice-cream. Hokey pokey of course!
The tour ended with a cable car trip back to the mainland, which was good. It gave an amazing view of the port and just how busy the bay's and sea around the port of Singapore is.
Day two finished with dinner in the hotel and early night.
After breakfast we decided to take the hop on hop off bus to the river and do a river tour. After waiting for 45 minutes in the stiffling heat (31C, 90%H) the bus arrived. We got on and it went 500m around the road, turned a corner and let us off!
The river tour was brief, but interesting. Some of the Architecture in Singapore is amazing. We had lunch at an "Amercian Diner" and then went for a tour to Sentosa Island.
Sentosa Island is stunning. It has amzaing views and (artificial) sandy beaches. It's an island by name only as we went there by bus! The tour guide Kamal was great and had us all in stitches. We went to Underwater world, which is very similar to Kelly Tarltons in Auckland, and the Singapore Museum.
The Museum was fairly boring and Madison was mobbed by Japanese tourists in the gift shop for about 15 minutes. One old lady took her off us for a cuddle at one point, which was a little strange!
We got a family photo with a Python outside the Museum and had a "New Zealand Natural" ice-cream. Hokey pokey of course!
The tour ended with a cable car trip back to the mainland, which was good. It gave an amazing view of the port and just how busy the bay's and sea around the port of Singapore is.
Day two finished with dinner in the hotel and early night.
Singapore : Day 1.
We arrived in Signapore without any dramas. Madison was great on the plane and not at all phased. We arrived at 7pm local time, but about 11pm for us, so we were bushed. We went to order room service but the menu had changed, so we couldn't find anything we liked on the menu. Not a good start.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Geek Tip #1
We have known for a while we will be moving to the UK. I have been trying to secure work from here (New Zealand), so I can start not long after landing.
This is impossible I have decided. There are two main reasons for this:
1) The time difference makes it very hard to contact recruiters via phone
2) Recruiters in the UK seem to work maybe 1-2 weeks out from the commencement of the job, so if you tell them you are arriving in say 4 weeks, they ignore you straight away. I guess they have enough people to filter, that you would need to be available ASAP.
Oh and I have found these the best job sites:
The IT Job Board
totaljobs.com
Job Serve (make sure you choose the UK site)
CW Jobs
Market rates seem to vary from place to place, but for a Senior C# developer then 300 quid a day is about minimum for London. Permanent jobs don't pay anywhere near that money. 30-45k per annum would be the norm.
If you decide to contract then it is easier to go through an umbrella company - they basically take care of tax and invoicing etc for you and take a cut (usually percentage) from your wages. I haven't got in touch with any yet, but I will post about it when I do!
This is impossible I have decided. There are two main reasons for this:
1) The time difference makes it very hard to contact recruiters via phone
2) Recruiters in the UK seem to work maybe 1-2 weeks out from the commencement of the job, so if you tell them you are arriving in say 4 weeks, they ignore you straight away. I guess they have enough people to filter, that you would need to be available ASAP.
Oh and I have found these the best job sites:
The IT Job Board
totaljobs.com
Job Serve (make sure you choose the UK site)
CW Jobs
Market rates seem to vary from place to place, but for a Senior C# developer then 300 quid a day is about minimum for London. Permanent jobs don't pay anywhere near that money. 30-45k per annum would be the norm.
If you decide to contract then it is easier to go through an umbrella company - they basically take care of tax and invoicing etc for you and take a cut (usually percentage) from your wages. I haven't got in touch with any yet, but I will post about it when I do!
Top Post
Welcome to my new blog. I intend to post about our Overseas Experience (OE) and post some pictures (or links to) etc, and maybe a bit of help for other developers looking to move to the UK etc.
We leave March 12 2007 and have a 2 night stop-over in Singapore, en route to the UK. We will be based in Market Harborough initially.
I am going to do contracting work over there, trying to find work in the Midlands for a start and when we move closer to London, probably in London.
We leave March 12 2007 and have a 2 night stop-over in Singapore, en route to the UK. We will be based in Market Harborough initially.
I am going to do contracting work over there, trying to find work in the Midlands for a start and when we move closer to London, probably in London.
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