I'm Dreaming of a White... Easter?!!

Things are looking up. We have had a nice wee touch of snow, some visitors over the long weekend and the days are getting longer, getting dark at 6:35, and it is supposed to be a whopping 10^oC tomorrow.
Jordan and Jax (friends of Eryn’s from New Plymouth) came and stayed for a night on Saturday. Thanks to the delight that is public transport we had to drive most of the way to London to pick them up. What should have taken an hour and cost ₤15, was going to take two and a half, involve three trains and two buses… and cost a rather ridiculous ₤120.

After a bit of a drive to the north bits of Suffolk, where we checked out Framlingham Castle (in the dusk), tried to drive to the disappearing town of Dunwich (in the almost dark), and went for a walk on the beach at a town which we have yet to locate on a map (in the dark). We ended up in a cute little pub in Aldeburgh (which, the locals inform us, is pronounced ‘ALL-borough’… we’re beginning to agree that English is the hardest language to learn!) where we discussed the sometimes absurd challenges of life in Blighty. In hindsight, it might not have been the best location for this conversation, so we beat a somewhat hasty retreat after a couple of nasty stares from the natives.

The others indulged in some good old fashioned British binge drinking – which is a lot like the binge drinking at home, only less frequent and finishing earlier – while I looked on in disgust and judged them for being so common…and some middle of the night phone calls to NZ – it’s about the only time that the time difference comes in handy!

Woke up to snow the next day, proper on-the-ground stuff too, none of this ‘it’s snowing but not settling” rubbish in Ipswich… so we headed off to the park and made a snowman. When I say we I mean Eryn, she was about as excited as a Labrador chasing a stick… And about as good at making snowmen as the Queen’s corgis. As soon as we got inside (completely soaked), it stopped snowing and was nearly gone three hours later.

Click on the photo for the whole album:

As soon as we’d loaded Jordan & Jax back on the train, Rod and Louise turned up for a couple of nights – was great to see them, and an opportunity to retrace our steps from Saturday in the daylight! We did discover we have an uncanny knack of leaving a town once the snow cleared up and arriving just as it started in the next place… it made for some picture-postcard-type scenes, but there comes a point when you’ve had about enough, really.
This weekend is a pretty quite one, I've just been at the football... watching Ipswich Town draw 0-0 (lucky Eryn wasn't there to whinge and point out the futility of such games!) and we're off for a wander in the countryside tomorrow... then we're heading to Krakov, Poland on Friday, which we're both really looking forward to...
Talk soon,
Kent & Eryn x

Como esta?

...Gee, 3 days in Portugal and we think we can talk like the locals!
Have just got back from our first sojourn to the continent, spending 3 days & nights in Lisbon, Portugal... it was awesome.

Kent's been teaching some Maths at his new job, so he's obsessed with numbers at the moment... there was no shortage of them on our long weekend:

1... motorcycle accident. The guy was only on the ground for all of a second before he leapt up, got back on the bike and whizzed off... I suppose it's hardiness like that which led the Portuguese to takeover large sections of the globe in the 15th and 16th centuries!

2... copies of Asterix in Portuguese. I think Kent has decided this is his new 'thing' and that we will be hunting down as many of these in foreign languages as he possibly can - it definitely beats collecting coke cans or stamps.

3... the number of different types of drugs on offer from a street seller who approached Kent... who was slightly taken aback by the little bag of 'herbs' he was being offered... brilliant! Quite ballsy too, as there were Policia just a couple of metres away. Not surprisingly, he didn't make a sale, but we've been giggling about it ever since...

6... days a week the Naval Museum is open. This does not include Monday... which, and I know you can see where this is going, is the very day we went to visit it, at the bottom of the steepest hill we've seen since leaving NZ... can't win 'em all.

10... 45pm. The time we left a massive shopping centre in the new part of Lisbon on Sunday night when everything, even the hairdresser, was still open... on a Sunday!

25... trips on the metro underground thingy... which is soooo much nicer and cleaner than the one in London (although it is far smaller and newer, so not surprising) so no black snot here!

13... minutes by ferry to Cacilhas, Almada on the other side of the river... where we walked. A lot. Then we walked some more. During the all the walking (most of which was in the rain, thanks to the tail of that big nasty storm that hit the south of England) we stumbled across what might be the cutest little restaurante ever - it was exactly like we pictured family-run Portuguese restaurants, the woman running it didn't speak any English, but we muddled through - even ordered things I didn't know the contents of - very brave! It was just lovely and definitely one of the highlights of the trip - especially as Kent left a tip, which is usually unheard of!

17,000... teachers protesting (or, as we like to call it, shutting down the entire central city) at their rubbish pay, which a street artist told us is pretty abismal, and they were awfully organised, so you have to give them credit for that. As it turns out, we think the locals have a penchant for picketing as we saw another march two days later and several signs advertising further protests (for different causes) on weekends later this month... they were all very orderly and well behaved though.

110 metres... the height of the Monumento a Cristo Rei (Christ the King statue) that overlooks the city (like the one in Rio, only newer). It was simply massive and had the weather been kinder, the views back across to Lisbon would have been even more breathtaking than the towering statue of the big guy itself.

50 million... the number of knots of wind on Monday while we traipsed uphill and down dale. Well, maybe not quite that bad, and certainly not so strong as all the pics of England on the news (talk about picking the right time to flee the country) but it was v breezy... we even had a bit of a dodgy landing at Heathrow on Tuesday, well after the worst was over... so glad we didn't come back on Sunday night or Monday - eeeek.

It would be pretty easy to go on and on about it, the whole trip was unforgettable... here are a few of our pics:

Lisbon

Talk soon,
Kent & Eryn x

Work and Walk

Uh - oh. I showed Kent how to update the blog... what have I done??!! In fairness, I've been pretty slack at keeping it updated, but we've been ever so busy re-learning how to say words like sAH-ven (7) and pAHn (pen) and to start conversations with "Alright?" that I've barely had a chance to turn the central heating down and pay the council tax, let alone do anything interesting enough to merit blogging....

I have a job. I don’t entirely understand what I am supposed to be doing. I have worked out I am teaching Maths and English. They call them “Application of Numbers” and “Application of Language” so it doesn’t sound too “schoolie” to the little darlings.
I teach the Horticulture Kids and the Animal Care (Wabbits and cute little fluffy things) Girls.
I also am doing a little bit of teaching the, um, what is the politically correct word? “special” students.
It has actually been kind of fun... especially when a kid asks you “how long does it take to get to Ispwich on the boat [from NZ]?” and figuring out that he didn’t know we would have airplanes or airports or cities or ambulances or pretty much anything else, bless him.

Anyhow.

Hiking. On Tuesday the 12^th I jumped on the $200 train ride from Ipswich Town, home of the mighty “Tractor Boys” (for the uninitiated, that's the, ahem, fantastic local football team), to Sheffield to meet up with Rod and Thomas, then we headed the three hours to the Lakes District in Cumbria - home of Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit, William Wordsworth, Alfred Wainwright, John Ruskin and a couple of sneaky wee Nuclear Power Plants.

We started walking the first night at about 10:30pm. We just had a short hour and a bit up to one of the small lakes for the night.
The next morning we had a big climb up a cliff. I really enjoyed it thinking it was amazing and we should do it a couple more times. Unfortunately when we got to the top the view was a bit average.

Um, yeah, no. That’s not how it went. The climbing was scary as be-jesus but the view was amazing bar none... here it is - and if you click the photo there's a couple more of our adventure:

During the four days we climbed (wandered up, for those used to walking in NZ) four of the six highest peaks in the Lakes District including Scarfell Pike, the highest mountain (ridge) in England. We did about 35km across and about two km up cumulatively. There were a lot of really cool paths and views. Once we got above 450m we did not go below it again, so we didn't have anything more than one hour walking straight up.

The weather was as good as was possible for all four days, no rain and even very little cloud and wind... I know - England. Winter. Sunshine? I was as confused as you are.

Haven’t done any hiking for months now so it was nice to get out and into it.

And, yes the three of us slept in the luxury of that two person tent...cosy.

Kent and Eryn x

P.S. Eryn's Valentines Day present arrived finally. She thinks it is great, a very thoughtful and romantic gesture... well, as much as "Asterix in Italian" can be a romantic gesture.

The Beautiful Game Part II

Hooray - we finally have a home phone and internet connection (we didn't think it would take so long either - they do love their red tape, these Brits!)... so we can update you on what we've been up to... Kent's decided he's dead keen on following our local football team, Ipswich Town... He has this to say:

"I beheld my first Ipswich Town game on Tuesday night. A beautiful night of 6 or 7 degrees welcomed the two teams to battle out the most exciting live football game I have yet seen.
After only six minutes on the clock they had already racked up four minutes overtime after the dynamic, ethnically-advantaged Danny Haynes bowled the AR into the wooden fence, making a noise that could be heard above the roar of the twenty thousand and ninety five spectators. He was on the ground for three minutes, before getting up and continuing. He lasted a further twenty minutes before subbing himself off.
The fourth official got a run, but the crowd didn’t much appreciate his input after a couple of dubious offsides, and his flagging for a penalty against us late in the second half. The penalty was given, and then saved, by Neil Alexander, who is being sold to Rangers.
The referee was OK; controlling the game well in the first half, but after warning one of Plymouth's defenders for his second poor foul he let him off the next time and then finally carded him after his fourth. Some would say that one could have been his second yellow.
I was sitting next to an old guy who has been coming to “Town” games since his first game when he was on leave from the army in 1938. He has had a season pass, on the same seat, for over 20 years now.
I had a great game, as did the old guy, the ref was OK, the fourth official was a wee bit pants. The End.
Oooh you'll want to know the score... Nil Nil"

Sorry bout that - he insisted on a full account of the game... and threatened to cut off my chai latte supply if I didn't let him publish it...

Talk soon
Kent & Eryn x