Week 1 down

Dear all

Hope you are all well.

Things are going well here. I’m slowly adjusting to the cold (although all the locals constantly remind me that it is ‘mild’ and not very cold at all). My nose still goes berserk every time I go in or out of doors.

Last weekend Rhys and I travelled down to London to visit our friends. We dined in Soho at a cheap and decent Indian restaurant. Harry (good friend, ex-pat from Australia) afforded us lovely accommodation at his new abode at Canary Wharf. The place really looks like something you’d get in Australia, which is unusual for UK/Europe. The water pressure was like Australia – which is something else unusual here.

Getting used to the water taps here is quite a challenge too. Separate hot and cold taps with low water pressure is hard.

Anyway back to London. We went to some lovely markets in Shropshire on Sunday. We found a genuine french baker who made lamingtons (Australian sweet – sponge squares covered in chocolate and coconut for those who don’t know) in the middle of London. So of course we had to buy some as well as these awesome almond croissants that he offered as a sampler. On the way in I went past an Illy coffee stall so had to get one on the way out. It was made and served by a genuine Italian. He counted out my british pound change in Italian. It was great.

Started work on Monday and it has been an easy week. I was working with two other guys and didn’t realise that they were all my junior until half way through the week. It was cool taking a back seat, but we learned from each other so it was cool. They do way less work than back home.

This weekend I went to Cardiff. Rhys went to Paris on Thursday as he got cheap travel where I couldn’t leaving on Friday after work. Apparently it’s a mid-term break and Valentine’s weekend and there is only one flight on Friday night from Birmingham to Paris. Eurostar is ridiculously expensive unless you book early.

I tried getting cheap travel to Paris but fronting up to the airport airline desks. I was flatly refused anything under £400. They don’t do walk in last minute deals anymore apparently. An older gentleman at British always took pity on me and offered me a flight to Brussells and then return from Paris for £180. Which was really nice and best deal, but still a lot of money for a weekend.

So I ended up getting a 4 star hotel in Cardiff and return train tickets for £100 instead. Cardiff was lovely Very windy. It was raining on Saturday. It was like Brisbane. Sun shower, then torrential rain for a 5 minutes then back to sun showers. The sun was actually out. Which is probably what made it nice. The sun was out all weekend, out and then behind clouds and out again.

I visited the Cardiff Castle and the Love Spoon store. That was very interesting. Love Spoons are an Old Welsh tradition. The guy carves from wood a spoon to show his serious intentions toward his love. I saw the largest and the smallest. Very cool stuff.

Cardiff Castle was unique. Right in the heart of the city. City Hall was nearby and beautiful too.
I also went down to Cardiff Bay and saw the renowned 5 star St David hotel. Visited and dined at Mermaid Quay in a pub advertising home cooked meals (it was good and cheap). Looked into Millennium Centre. Learnt about the Wales political system at Pierhead. I got a thirst to go to Norway from the Norwegian Arts Centre and got a good view of the Bay from the Cardiff Bay visitor centre that’s shaped like a telescope.

Didn’t learn a word of Welsh, but enjoyed my time there.

Tomorrow I head off for a small place near Milton Keynes called Leighton Buzzard. It’s outside London and 100 miles from Birmingham. I’m already on an away job on my second week of work. I found out late Friday afternoon as I was by chance in the office. But apparently that’s normal.

Also found out they hadn’t heard about this travel allowance I’m meant to get to make up the difference between my Australian wages and living in Britain. So I have mentioned it to a manager and hopefully they’ll follow up because my Australian wage isn’t going to cover everything!

Apparently we are staying in a place called the Cock Inn in Leighton Buzzard. SO I will be spending Valentine’s day with a guy from the office at the Cock Inn.

Good laugh isn’t it.

Talk to you all next time. Thanks for all your emails, I will hopefully respond soon.