Jamies Corner

New Blog

2008-03-28T17:53:00.002Z

Hello everyone for the moment my rantings and ravings have moved to

http://www.hob-a-nob.blogspot.com/

The idea is that it's for more than just one person that contributes to the Blog.
There are a few posts for you to catch up on, Missy and I have done the posts so far

http://hob-a-nob.blogspot.com/2008/03/contiki-craziness-part-1_28.html
http://hob-a-nob.blogspot.com/2008/03/uk-quirks.html
http://hob-a-nob.blogspot.com/2008/02/prague-feb-2008.html
http://hob-a-nob.blogspot.com/2008/02/welcome-to-hob-nob.html

Hope you are all well n good

Christmas & New Years London Update

2008-01-20T19:32:00.000Z

Christmas

Christmas seems like such a long time ago and wow it must of been. I've had the last four days off, so time has been spent just chilling out, reflecting and listening to the Chillout sessions provided by Rob & Ellen. Cheer Cheer!

Melissa and I were working shift around Christmas, how suck was that! Craig the 1000 day holiday man came and stayed with us for a few days, he has a 'who la hoop' and I'm actually pretty good at it, though Mel and Craig both said I looked really funny whilst doing it, no doubt I did. Random eh :)

On Christmas eve and Christmas morning there were several calls to New Zealand and Australia. Melissa and I covered off most of the family and even a few friends. Melissa received many cool presents including a bracelet & theatre tickets to Wicked from me.

What made me laugh the most, was the CD sent over by Melissa's father which contained Christmas messages to Melissa and I from Melissa's siblings and respective partners. You could tell none of them were to keen on it, because Melissa's father included all the bloopers as well, but boooooy it was funny. Melissa's father is a good ole Aussie joker :)

Melissa's parents even got me a a 'John Butler' music DVD and Melissa's sister got us a photo frame and brother got us some more music. Melissa got me a wallet and shaver, which I was really happy with as my one had died.

I can't say I saw much come across from across the ditch though. Tisk, Tisk the Christmas cards were few and far between as well. No excuses I'm simply shocked, appalled and a little sad all at the same time, though needless to say I'll live. Actually I did get afew video's and pictures via Picasa thanks to my dearest mother.

Anyway with that out of my system for Christmas day we were invited to hang out with Will/Hannah/Craig and Hannah's sister Esta and Will's brother Tom for a 'orphans xmas'. So we caught an expensive taxi on Christmas day about 10 miles away to Esta and Pier's apartment it was really nice and Pier was a DJ and a really good cook. Nice catch Esta (wink wink), well needless to say there was wayyyyyyyy to much food and Pier made the best rice pudding ever.

The person that found a whole almond in their rice pudding won a prize and the person that finds it always hides the fact they have it. Will won the prize and had all the girls looking for the almond and all the boys eating that pudding until it was done. There was also caramelised red cabbage to boot, this caused alot of flatulence and a few people were sent to the bathroom numerous times... me included.

The night was finished with abit of Wii playing and Melissa was extremely competitive and won the bowling, she was extra happy after that...... Never challenge Melissa at bowling she'll surely take you for all ya have! And finally another expensive taxi ride home, money well spent though, would do it again all over.

New Years

New Years eve was spent watching the fire works by the Big Ben, there was heaps of people out as there usually is, but because it was London there were people everywhere.... the funny thing is the London council didn't roll out the porta loo's like they do in NZ, noooo sooo people were just pi^%^^%^ everywhere, abit gross but there is way to many people here.

On a lighter note I got a great New Years kiss from Melissa, she's such a sweety, the fireworks were great and I even have video to prove. There's even a 'happy new years video for Melissa's family, mine to come, hope you enjoy the bloopers there were quite a few :)

Wicked Times

Thankfully we've also been ice skating on an open air rink, visited the national history museum and saw a great musical Wicked. All that has been very enjoyable and I won't go into all the gory details because they ain't that gory, you could just say we're having some wicked times.

Hope ya'll doing well in New Zealand and Australia.

Love

Jimpa Stimpa

London Random Abbey n Thames

Last Day - Boston

Lots of Randoms Photos 2007 and Xmas

New York

2007-11-28T17:29:00.001Z

New York, New York

I woke up at 5:40am and we'd booked the Fung Wah bus for 7am so the timing was perfect no alarms were required! Melissa and I got up, dressed, cleaned in record timing however we still managed to get there 10 minutes late. Although we did purchase breakfast on the way and caught the 7:30am bus instead.

Matt had kindly given us a map and guide book of New York the day before and it was very useful and almost a fashion accessory as you'll see from the pictures. Matt also told me 'You could spend all day just in Central park', with that in mind Melissa and I were focused on seeing as much as possible. Even if it did mean rushing, leaving things behind, going hungry and getting sore feet. That's right we had embarked on a Urban Hike the mightiest of em all!

The trip on the bus down was pretty cool, Melissa and I were both excited, neither of us actually had talked about going to New York before our trip to Boston so it was a ad lib adventure. The Fung Wah is $15 USD each way and it's non-stop from Boston to New York China Town. On the way down it was four hours and on the way back about five because we stopped to fill up.

The country side was beautiful, it's just turned winter but the leaves are still really pretty, they were red and orange and leaves were scattered all over the show. There were a few towns on the way down Frankfort, Providence and a couple of others. We travelled from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York that's 3 states in 4 hours pretty cool huh.

Melissa choose the right side of the bus to sit on and we swapped seats about halfway through the journey so I could bring yah all some nice photo's of Manhattan. It looked very grey, but the city is massive, how we would navigate around this city. Our skills, patience, intelligence, charisma and speaking abilities would be put to the test in the big apple. One day of sight seeing, surely we could tick a couple of boxes without too much trouble.

The bus dropped us off in China town which was about 8 blocks away from the ground zero depending on how you count :) Melissa found her feet and started navagiating and shortly I found myself in a little coffee house commonly known as star bucks, incidentally it's also known for its great clean toilets. So we examined our notes and recounted what we wanted to cover

Ground Zero

Battery Park – Statue of Liberty

Rockefeller – Second largest building

Central Park

Times Square

Macy's

Such a small list, but our bus was going to pick up at 8pm and the time was already close to midday, we only had 8 hours left. We both knew that we'd be adding the subway to that list as there was about 15 miles in between everything. Walking wasn't going to be the greatest option and Missy had worn her boots in true New York fashion, things were tricky!

Ground Zero was a tourist hot spot, but to be honest it wasn't all that interesting, people tried to sell pictures and pawn things off to you. There was a public viewing platform where you can see the whole area, it's actually really huge and you can understand how it made such a big impact on the people in America. Somehow after we look briefly at this spot Melissa found New York's best kept secret 21st Century.

The previous day was black Friday when all the USA shops went into the black and made money, so here we were the following day in a clothing store. My mind swilled with all the people. Melissa was very happy and snagged up a black top hat and gloves which you can see in the photo's a great buy. After getting the tags cut off we headed off to battery park.

Battery park is similar to walking along Darling harbour(AU) or perhaps Mission bay(NZ), one striking difference is that you can see the statue of Liberty, it's really small from there though and the sun was in a horrible position for photos. We toyed with the idea of ferrying across to the Island and seeing it up close but we hadn't covered much off our list yet. Both our tummies were grumbling and we sampled some of the local food pizza.

The food was ok and we had a little rest and agreed we'd catch the subway to Central park 96th St. London has the Underground which was really confusing at first, though New York is a complete doddle. Everything is plainly explained and Matt's book had all the maps we needed in it. We purchased a metro card $10 USD which we both used to get to Central park, two dollars a pop. There were no drama's and no navigation issues, Melissa is a legend.

We ended up in Central park at around 3:30pm and it was very pretty again the tree's looked really cool and I just started snapping up pictures. Unfortunately I lost my camera cover and will need to buy another, we spent abit of time looking for it but alas we couldn't find it. Central Park was huge and we only covered a small distance though it was really nice and I'd love to go jogging through it sometime.

The Rockefeller was next on the agenda and by 5pm it was dark, the city lights looked really cool and we couldn't wait to get to the 57th floor and check out the view from the 'top of the rock' as the staff termed it. The day was perfect and so was the night we were both in for a real treat. The tickets cost about $27 each and well worth the cost. The advertising at the start wasn't, it really annoyed me actually I'd just paid a whole heap of money to wait, for a moment there I thought I was back in the London Dungeon.

Although the wait wasn't really that bad and we were soon on this lift that made funny sounds and had holographic pictures on the top of it. People remarked how cool it was, but it did lead to a sore neck, I would recommend ignoring it. Once we reached the top of the lift we went outside to the view, it was remarkable. New York is massive and with all the lights on the town was lit up, I'm sure everyone has a different idea what it looks like, my impression was the death star!

You could just stand and stare for ages on end at those lights, the temperature though was about negative 2 degrees. There were two floors that you could go up and once you hit the top you could just see straight out. On the lower levels you were protected by massive plastic fences, that was nice but not so good for photos. Somehow on the top floor I managed to take a few of Melissa with the right settings on my SLR. I'm sure they could have been better but I was well pleased with them.

We descended to the bottom and realised the time was around 7pm, there was little time left in our day and we decided we'd miss the 8pm bus and go for the 9pm instead. So off we went to Times Square in search of food, there were plenty of MacDonald's along the way but I wanted something better. In the end we settled for a pasta bar where they cooked up what you wanted. Melissa and I both paid for the pasta twice and had a little mix-up with the staff there though everything was eventually sorted out.

Times Square was a busy place and there was a definite hussle and bustle going on. It was cool to be there but I was glad to move along as I'm sure it was a haven for pick pockets and a few undesirables that could hide in the crowds of people. Then we arrived at could only be described as a girls heaven and a boys torture chamber Macy's. Luckily I wasn't tortured to much most guys looked very solemn as we wandered through the many levels that Macy's offered. Melissa walked in and her face just glazed over and she mummed 'I could spend all day here'. Although she wanted a coat and I had no idea where they were, knowing that the place was designed to trick and hoodwink it's captives we asked for directions twice and got two different answers, eventually we ended up in the coat section.

Melissa found a great looking coat and boy was she pleased, I'm sure she was dancing on the inside, she'd come to New York and been shopping not once but twice. Unfortunately it was 8:30 and we hit the subway to get the 9pm bus to Boston. We missed that bus and had to get the 10pm one.

All and all we achieved what we wanted to do, but I was exhausted and slept soundly on that bus, Melissa was tired as well. We arrived at Mel and Matt's at 3am getting a Taxi home from the bus stop, the Taxi was only $10. So all in all we were out of the house for 22hours to do a day trip to New York from Boston. I would do it again if I have the chance but next time book a hotel for a night and turn it into a weekend trip. The trip was not for the feint of heart but me and Melissa managed to finish up happy and tired a good result.

USA - New York

US and Aye

2007-11-26T07:45:00.000Z

Hey everyone,

Your crazy kiwi is writing to you from Boston and my it's mighty cool here around 1-2 degrees, and for a kiwi that is cold especially after you've spent 9 months in Port Macquarie, Australia. London is getting colder to but we haven't been there for the past week.

Instead we've been dossing at my big sisters in Boston US and Aye, it's been such a great time here, today is me and Missy's final day. Our primary goal for the visit was to have thanks giving at Melissa's house because everyone raves about the event and of course to see my wonderful sister and it was all that and more. After that we cruised slowly around Boston and check out the major attractions and then in one great whirlwind we got to New York and back in day.

What a holiday it has been.

Thanks giving

We were spoilt beyond belief, thanks giving was divine. The day started off at 10am with Champagne and juice, followed shortly with croissants out of a can cooked in the oven and filled with Avacado, ham, tomato(peppered) and cheese. These tasty little treats tied me over because I was famished by 10:30 every with the booze.

To my surprise Mel cooked up another batch and it was just the four of us at this stage Mel, Matt, Missy and Jamie. Visitors started trickling in and drinking and eating, Kim arrived with a huge box and she was to handle all the appetizers.

I can't really give Kim's appetisers the attention to detail they require but there was a constant delivery of food from 2pm till 6pm and all of it was tasty. Meatballs, cranberry kinda spring roll thingies and I ended up with a cooked combination cheese/onion dip with crackers. I'm sure there was more judging by the size of my tummy but my memory has been erased :)

Melissa then came out with the main Turkey, gravy, Chicken, asparagus, sweet potato, oh my golly did she cook it with finesse and it sure did taste good. Everything on the plate just melted in your mouth, it all went from my plate so fast though I daren't have too much as there was desert and wine was being poured like it was going out of fashion. It was Mel and Matt's wedding present from Brent and the bottle was bigger than ManHatoon!

Melissa finished up delievering a cake, cheeky little cranberry sorbet and some Boston chocolates, as I write this my tummy is screaming for some more of that desert :) I don't think Melissa made the cake and it didn't really get touched that day. From all accounts Melissa's cooking is way better than you'll get in most places so why would you spoil it with something from a shop?

All and all the guests were very well behaved and the night was very social and apparently some of the normal thanks giving antics weren't uncovered. Me and Missy had a great time and we both had a great day, it will be tempting to come back again next year if I'm in this neck of the woods.

Boston - Thanks Giving

Checkout the new apartment

2007-10-29T13:06:00.000Z

The new apartment tours.

Jamies' tour

Melissas' tour

Went to Ikea on the weekend and filled it up with stuff

London - Update - Video Bloggin

2007-09-30T20:43:00.001+01:00

Hey guys not to much to add to these videos, the first two are real quick from Richmond and the second is from today which is an update of the week.

Rock on!

London - Regent Park

London - Update - Rugby, Richmond and The Dungeon

2007-09-25T09:00:00.000+01:00

Time sure has passed quickly since I arrived on July the 8th, that's about two and a half months. I've started work and have been doing my time on the central line, about 2 hours everyday of commute all up. In Port Macquarie I had about 10 minutes from door to door, alot has changed for a start there are another 8.4 million people in London.

After work I go out sometimes or have a big cookup at home, the movies are also like four minutes from the house. British movies aren't my thing though so I tried the local video store, me and Mel are currently watching 'The Ice Harvest', pretty good movie.

The Londoner's love pints and I've been indulging abit as well, though me and Mel have decided four units is enough each night. You know I need to watch my weight and all that.... we've been eating out a little bit too.

Brick Lane has been absolutely fabulous, only minutes away and every weekend there is something different on. Traditionally it's the place for curries and lots of Indian scalpers are scattered through the street offering you discounts and drinks if you come into their restaurant. There's no such thing as a free dinner so I always so no, in saying that I've tried some curry and wow they pack a punch into it down Brick lane. The English call them ruby Murries, well thats what my English flat mate asks 'have you been down the road for a ruby Murry?'

Otherwise Brick lane has festivals galore, so far I've been to the Thai festival, Music festival and the Brick lane markets. Usually the bottom end of the lane is packed with people and it's a very trendy opposite to the run down curry joints. The bars are also very cool, there are a whole lot of them and they cater for different types however there are very little suits about and the streets are full of arty farts so you can just imagine.

The flat in Whitechapel is going good and the flatmates are behaving for a spell, all except Mel, she's always very naughty :) Though on the occasion she does cook, clean and do the washing for which I'm very grateful. So there you go life in the real East End is going well and when I'm not going out me and Mel are exploring some new park or some new place.

Mel has just got a job, so soon enough we will be travelling through Europe on long weekend excursions. I'm looking forward to seeing some new places, though there are still so many to see in London.....

Rugby Fun

The Rugby world cup is officially on and the South hemisphere teams are carving up the Northern sides. I usually just watch the big games and since relocating to London, watching the game is like renewing my Kiwiana.

So when Dwayne and Dan were heading out to Belushis me and Mel decided to pop along as well. The game was England vs South Africa and funily enough I caught up with Bronwyn from NZ, hadn't seen her in ages. Well it was a great game, South Africa ended up wasting England and half the bar cleared out, which was great because it was shoulder to shoulder. After that a few of us trundled off to the walk about (another bar) and were drenched in drunken peoples booze yeeehaaa! I think Dwayne did pretty well at the end of the night though! Be sure to ask him if you get a chance :)

Will and Hanna also invited us to a Ireland versus France, sux for Ireland because they lost. We went to Barracuda, which was a really nice bar, lots of space and heaps of tv sets to watch the rugby and some big Plasma's. There was another two guys there John and Dan who gave Mel some flack and made her feel welcome to London. Really though we could hardly hear each other that night, John and Dan ended up going home early.... I think Dan was getting married in Los Vegas on Tuesday so that was a good reason :) So the couple party stayed and danced the night away... well for about half an hour actually. The walk home was enjoyable for some but not all.

Sunday @ Richmond Park

Parks have still been very much on my agenda, there has been some lovely weather and the weekend provided another opportunity for me and Mel to get out and about. We thought we'd go down to Richmond from Whitechapel via the tube. Only 2 pounds extra for the pleasure, Richmond is about 50 minutes commute off-peak, so we set off about 9am in the morning.

We've learnt to get maps and read signs alot, because it's very easy to get lost in London and we both can't stand the messy A-Z. We navigated from the tube to Thames and then up to Richmond park. It was a really nice walk and we passed through the Terrace gardens which were very pleasing on the eyes. You'll see plenty of flower photo's, there were some very cool ones that looked like ear rings.

At Richmond park you meet a busy intersection of cars, it's just the entrance but you'll find that most of London's major parks have cars running through them. Stopping at the map we made sure we were on the right side of the park, it looked like a half an hour walk to the bikes, which we had intended to hire. Thankfully we were in the right place and we set out to explore the beautiful park.

There were heaps of signs scattered around saying 'Stay on the path, don't get close to deer, recent foot and mouth outbreak', yay for foot and mount eh? So we decided it best to keep our distance and I took a few distance photo's. Really I should have taken the zoom lens, but after all they are only deer right. The scenery as you'll see is quite nice but doesn't change alot around the park. Though you should definitely check out the plantations, ponds and gardens very cool.

The bike hire was really easy to find and cost £8 / hour, the price alone put us off the riding. Not only would we've needed to shell out at least £8 pounds but we would have had to take the bikes back and then walk an hour and a half back to the station!!! So we decided to have a sammie instead and a coffee from the cafe in the park. The beauty about London is the parks have cafes and generally they are pretty good. The sammie had mould on it but we swapped it for another.

After that we just explored the rest of the park and the plantation would have been the highlight. There were lots of logs you could just sit and chill on, great place for a picnics to, as bikes weren't allowed in. After that we headed back to Richmond and drunk a few pints at the local O'Niels and watched NZ vs Scotland. The game was average and NZ won 40-0 but there was alot of scrums breaking apart which really slowed the game down.

London Dungeon

This place should actually be called the London Queue, if you go on a Saturday like I did, you'll spend about an hour and a half just queuing. The English love to queue though I did notice a few people slipping out of the queue to go do something else. I booked the tickets on lastminute.com which saved us about £20, well worth it. Once we finally managed to get ourselves inside actors would meet n greet you at every station.

The actors were pretty good and brought the place to life as they scared you and informed you a little of the history. Sometimes you were even involved in the whole drama, one poor bloke got sorted out in the torture chamber and we were all sentenced to the gallows! The had some good sets with Jack the Ripper, Sweeney's barbershop, the Fire of London and the Plague. Mel got quite a few good scares with a big bloke sneaking up on her and giggling in her ear.

I'm sure this place is really old and hasn't been upgraded much, probably like most of London, if you're thinking of going go during the week and bring some music or reading material for the queues :)

UK - Airport Arrivals & Underground Revolt

2007-09-06T13:25:00.000+01:00

Missy Arrives

It's September now and the weather is just great outstide today, London has sparkled up abit lately and Melissa has been looking very happy. Melissa arrived on Monday morning from Australia, what a journey that must have been for her.

In anticipation I booked a couple of nights at the Sheraton so

I didn't need to get up and brave the tube at 4:30am to pick her up at 6:00am
She could sleep after her plane flight
Mels father said we both needed a dirty weekend

Melissa didn't know we were going to the Sheraton and was very spoiled, it was very nice and the staff were great, we both veged and pigged out and had a great couple of days.

Urban Hiking

Tuesday morning we headed off from the Sheraton Heathrow to Whitechapel. The first mode of transport was the Heathrow Express, it takes you to Paddington station in 15 minutes for £15 which is a really good service but abit pricey. The London Underground/Tube was on the strike that day so it was our only option.

The Underground was closed and I was at a loss to how we actually purchased bus tickets, so we went off to the buses. There were heaps of people trying to get on the bus and we found where to buy tickets but we couldn't get on the buses anyway. Our faces would have been so squashed up against the glass if we got on one!

So we thought we'd try the taxi, after seeing about 300 people queueing up for Taxis that were going no-where we decided to walk and why wouldn't you? It was only about 14kms home :) So off we went on the Urban hike, but first we stopped at Star bucks for a caffeine buzz. Officially we started at 11am, the journey ahead seemed daunting.

There were heaps of sights and the day was perfect for it, though Missys shoes just couldn't handle her pace, so I swapped suitcases and she was off again. That's right we had two suitcases weighing in at 24kgs each, hence the urban hike term. The first stop was Hyde park, beaut place and I showed Missy the gardens and a few statues it was very enjoyable. Then we followed it up with Saint James Park, Buckingham Palace and Weistminter. Mel was smiles all round and was in awe of London.

After that we went over the Thames and had some McDonald's and enjoyed the sights with Big Ben, London eye and several other buildings spotted about the place. The final leg of the journey was some rather treacherous paving stones, they didn't always agree with our suit cases but we carried on all the same. The London Dungeon came into view and then the Tower bridge and Tower of London. Well that's when I knew we wern't all that far away.

So we carried on another 30 mins and we made it to my house in the mighty East London. Couldn't believe it, Mel was excited to be at my house and we both had a well deserved rest.

UK - Living it up Peak District

2007-08-02T06:49:00.002+01:00

I'm having a great time in the UK at the moment, there has been alot going on recently which is all good!

Have moved out from Jenny and Joshs house to Stepheny green which is reasonably close to Brick lane, so yes I've had a few curries :) I'm sharing with a couple of Italian guys and a couple(English and Chinese), good mix of people. The place is good enough and the people are friendly.

Made a couple of visits to the British Museum but still have only seen half of it, Dwayne came and he loved it to, so much to see and squirrels on the way.

Last weekend I went to the Peak District(Elton, UK) with Jenny n Joshs mates, we did a 20km walk on Saturday, followed by a 50km bike ride on Sunday (ouch). We stayed in a couple of houses, there was about 11 of us, all different cultures and nationalities French, German, Swiss, Czech and a couple of Kiwi Saffers. All and all the weekend was really cool as you can tell from the photos.

On Saturday night we had a BBQ, disposable UK styles, we bought 3 bbqs for £5, they did the trick but once finished you definitely throw those puppies out. Josh had asked for a hand and all I could find was a fork, so I left him to the cooking.

Everyone chipped in and helped out with everything, it was a very good group made some cool friends.

On the job front, things are moving along, one of my references has been checked in NZ which is all good. So I'll probably be working this month, I've been enjoying the unemployed life this last month. Have tried to keep in a semi-work routine and have been programming a catalyst website http://www.catalystframework.org/ and I'm meeting up with the Perl Mongers(programming group) tomorrow at a pub for a social night.

Jamie

London - Hyde Park

2007-07-20T13:57:00.000+01:00

From London - Hyde...

The painters and painted the room yesterday so I thought it was high time to go exploring the local park once again but this time I had my camera fully charged.

I walked around Hyde park for 8 hours solid yesterday and I've officially got a blister on my big toe! It all started off with me chilling out, actually I went for abit of a sleep because I was extra sleepy. The weather was nice and I just propped my bag up and went for a snooze with all the other sleepers.

Then I went off to the Marble Arch, which was actually outside the park but really right beside it. The Marble Arch was the main entrance to the Buckingham Palace but extensions means that it was moved here. However I was here because gallows used to be located close by which executed many people between 1571 to 1759, though it just turned out to be a busy intersection. Theres abit of a read on one my pictures

Then there were heaps of statues around and a few gardens which had some very nice flowers and squirrels were floating about to, very cool creatures.

I went down to the iron dukes house to, didn't bother going inside but it lived up to it's name as being very un-inviting. The queens gates were worth a look and finally I went to Kensington castle, which wasn't all that exciting either. It did have some very cool gardens around it though.

Princess Dianna had a fountain in the park to and there was the center piece of the park the Serpentine, which is a big lakish like water feature. I popped into the Serpentine gallery as well which was real small but worth a little gander.

Everything is going real well, have myself a place to stay for at least the next two months in White Chapel, a bank account that works and my CV in with a number of places, so now all I'm doing is enjoying myself. Hope you are extra super.

Best wishes,

Jamie

Life in London

2007-07-16T19:28:00.000+01:00

A week in London is a week like no other, you arrive tired and weary. Have a little sleep, recover and then head out to the tube, where people are not entirely inviting. Then you try to find the malls in your area, there are none however there are heaps of pubs everywhere.

Eventually you'll end up walking about aimlessly looking for the right shop, eventually you might find some stuff around town. Tired dazed and confused you'll navigate your way home on the closest tube station. The amount of people here just blows ya sox off, you can just look outside and there are at least 5 people wandering by in rush hours if not more. Now I have this book 'The rough guide to London', its really handy.

London feels like a big ole ant farm, this past week has been like orientation and yes I've got to know a few places. Seen a couple of flats, spent my fair share of time on Gumtree (website for Aussies/NZs/Saffas) and Jobserve.

Then there's been some social stuff to, going out drinking in Covent Garden a very cool place. Dwayne showed me a good time with Dan, we're looking at getting a place together, pretty scary :) Dan is a great guy and Dwayne well you all know Dwayne.

Oh, oh, oh and we watched the kiwi's vs the Saffa's very cool we won. Next week we play the Aussies I think, should be good hopefully we win again, time shall tell.

Well that's about it from me for now, nothing to specific very rough. Gonna catch with a few x-work colleagues later on in the week very cool. All in all things are working out well and the next few weeks ahead should be very relaxing.

Thankfully Josh and Jenny(Leons sister and brother in law) have been putting up with me this week they are the greatest. Jenny just did a huge fruit salad for dinner, very nice.

Here's some pics from the Imperial War Museum. Spent about three hours there, wasn't a big place but it was very interesting, it had a great holocaust exhibition, very cool but abit gruesome.

Confusion reigns supreme

2007-07-09T07:39:00.000+01:00

Today I worked out the tube system, the lobster card, the coloured lines and even the different line names and all said it is a very good system but if you don't understand it, you might end up finding yourself in the wrong place. Incidentally that hasn't happened to me yet :)

I sat through a 2 hour presentation to get a bank account and at the end of it my postal number was wrong, so I need to wait until Friday before my UK bank is opened, which is actually really quick.

On top of that an agent has already passed my details to one of their clients. What a busy day and I even have a UK phone number. Pop me an e-mail if you need it.

Still abit lagged but am having fun :-) Now to top up my new UK Vodafone.

Jamie

Jet Lagged In London

2007-07-08T14:07:00.000+01:00

Made in to London this morning at around 6am, has been a huge day today with abit of sleep to boot. Mainly have just walked around been shown the city by a couple of friends.

Wow big city, big place will have to deal with it tomorrow off to Bed :)

Newcastle getaway

2007-06-11T22:59:00.000+01:00

Newcastle And Bulahdelah

Visited Newcastle for the first time in the weekend and it was completely flooded.

The big ship was beached at one of the main beeches Noobys beach and it was threating to leak oil, luckily that didn't eventuate. There were heaps of people taking pictures and I was one of them.

Driving around was a little hazardous as cars were scattered all over the show and trees had fallen down everywhere. Tow truck drivers were moving cars off the road or onto the medium strip. Houses had water coming up through the carpet and 95000/50000 people were without power.

One young mother got her car stuck in the water while flooding and it carried her and her child down the river. Three young guys came to her rescue, one on a surfboard and two swimming. They managed to pull her and her baby out to safety.

What a shocker! Didn't do to much in the weekend but it sure was interesting seeing the effects of a flood. The power was off where I was staying and we just played cards and lit candles for the first night, until it came back on the next day. Then everything was back to normal.

Mind you it looks like Newcastle has alot of cleanup to do and have a new water feature. Stopped at Bulahdelah on the way back to Port Macquarie, it's a very small town with a lovely cafe Myallah.

Mums visit to Port Macquarie

2007-06-06T11:13:00.000+01:00

Mums PMQ Trip

Mother came to Port Macquarie over Queens birthday weekend and what a weekend it was!

Allen and Mum arrived at my apartment in Port Macquarie, they had a wee bit of trouble getting here apparently. I received a text message from Mum advising that they were out the back. So out I went, they could have just pushed the buzzer but Mum told me NZ'ers didn't know about them... something I highly doubt. Anyway out I went to see them and low and behold they were nowhere to been seen, so I went out the front and I still couldn't see them. I figured they must have turned up at the wrong complex, so I texted back advising of the street address and building name. Mum replied with "we're at the front" I was a little distressed at this so out I popped, only to see Allen driving away in a rental car. I jumped up and down a little but to no avail they were happily driving away, eventually they turned up at the back of the apartment. All in all it was a little extra exercise for me and I'm sure you all know what was going on inside the car :)

They stayed for 3 days and I kinda moved to Mel's so they had the run of the house, double bed and all. I showed them the bats and boy ain't they cool, Mum got me a new zoom lens from Canon, so the bats look better in the photo's. Allen really loved the bats as well, however Mum made a mad dash through the bat zone. They piss and poo and smell a little bit as you walk through them, all good though. Fruit bats are rather interesting, they're referred to as flying foxes in Port Macquarie.

Later that day we went out for Lunch with Mel to the River Mart cafe, it was a great lunch and we followed it up with a cruise on the Port Venture. The Port Venture is always a great trip only 25 bucks each and you get to see Oyster farms and Dolphins and the local houses, I'm sure you've seen alot of my photo's up the river so I tried to keep it to a minimum.

That night Mel and Mum had a body shop party, it's something girls do at houses. I should have never left them alone! My mother told Mel she had to take two years off when she has babies amongst other things, I'm lucky the girl is still around, shocking :) I wonder how long I'm meant to take off? If I father a few babies.

So anyway it was a great success and we followed it up with the Pirates of the Caribbean: To Deaths End, that was really cool. The next day we went for a board walk around the rain forest, the guy taking the tour knew all about the rain forest and we learnt tons about rain forests which I've conveniently forgotten :) Also check out the bush Turkey those guys are crazy!

The following day we went to Laurieton, it was a great view from the top as it always is. We stopped off at lighthouse bay and checked out the Whales. At night we all went to the corner bar and had a fabulous dinner.

It was a huge weekend and eventually Mum and Allen drove back to Sydney and flew out to Auckland. Mum e-mailed me and said she was safe and sound, so she must be.

Love Jamie

Meeting the fockers and catching the flu

2007-05-29T12:26:00.000+01:00

Well this past two weeks has been quite something. Melissa in her infinite wisdom, decided we should go to her hometown Tamworth! Ye hah, so off we went into Tammers, it's inland and is the sister city to good old Gore. Gore is where my father comes from so he's been telling me I'm getting back to my country roots....

Something like that I guess :) Well Melissa drove most of the way, because after all it is her car. It was a windy drive inland, it's the second time I've done it, it was only a few months back I did the Inverell trip.

After a four hour drive and a few stops we arrived at her parents house, the time was 9pm and they had severed up the great Aussie meal. For those of you that don't know what the great Aussie meal is let me enlighten you.....

Several weeks back I went to visit Mel's Grandparents, it was a real experience I can tell you and it was also Carmel's birthday (Mel's Mum) whom was also present. I was expecting a great roast or perhaps a BBQ... but no surprise, surprise the local Chinese store provides the great Aussie meal. It is Chinese.... and doesn't always agree with my stomach as I found out at the grandparents. The grandparents visit is a story in itself which I might tell you if you're mildly interested another time.

So I was at Mel's parents two weeks later at 9pm and they order delivery Chinese, I was a little shocked but more impressed with the home cooked meal the following night it was really tasty.

Well the parents visit was pretty cool and me and Mel got to stay in the same room even, so it wasn't all that bad :) We went to a local quilt show, which incidentially had titavating bra's (see my web album link) and other such fun. Then the local rugby union was on in the afternoon and in the wee early hours of the morning I was shipped off to the Impy(pub). After all that I was shattered.

The visit seemed to go without a hitch and the fockers wern't all that bad, Mel gets to meet my mother this weekend te he he, I've been winding her up about it for days now. Well the following Wednesday I went on a boat cruise with the crew from work, after the cruise we watched some rugby and had some fun. Unfortunately the following Friday I was sick and have been for the weekend.

And now half the team is sick and I'm finally getting over it... gee what a run I'm having. Mel has the flu now to, crazy stuff.

For those of you that don't know I'm off to London in July, Visa and all can't wait and am staying at Leon's sisters house until I find my feet. All good, more stories and laughs to come.

PMQWorkFDUSeaJunket

Tammworth Trip

Cameron and Michelle Sollits Wedding

2007-05-10T10:25:00.000+01:00

Well Cammy and Michelle were getting married and I just had to go. Work as usual was being and real pain in the arse and taking up all my time but I thought stuff it I'm off to NZ just for the weekend to Papamoa just to see Cam and Michelle and their wedding.

So I did and it was a very enjoyable time, it was good to see Cam get married and finally seal the deal good on you big fella. I also caught up with Craig and Caroline which was very cool, after coming back from the UK they seem to be settling down in sleepy old NZ. It seems Craig has been head hunted as well, love it.

Check out the wedding pics and Megans Muslim barbie, what a sight.

NZ - Sollits Wedding Trip May 2007

Melissa's Wedding

2007-03-10T09:16:00.000Z

What a busy bloody ccouple of two weeks I feel like I have only just recovered.

It was back in the start of March, I popped over to NZ from the great Port Macquarie.
The mighty thunder lizard picked me up and we cruized on back to Takapuna where I slept the night at my mothers.

Spent a couple of nights at Mum's but fled to Cammies after there was talk of Gardening and other such manual labour. I thought I came to NZ on a holiday but I was wayyyyyy mistaken.

So that weekend I went out with thunder and co, out to the might Globe and a few other places, it was a fairly tame night as Mr Grimmitt was hooked up and so was thunder....

Anyway Cammies was cool and of course that's where Leon lives to. On the wedding day I drove Matt and the boys to a beauty palour where they all had their faces done including me. I must say it was very relaxing but not something I would normally schedule into my lifestyle. Then I drove them all up to Acension where the bridal party had pictures and all the rest.

I got to the wedding and lo and behold I was the Master of Cermonies, I already knew this but I wasn't to sure on any of the lines or what was going where and when. Well I did have a little idea, but I was also a little flustered.

The ceremony took off without a hitch, then of course as usual there were a few more pics. And then the drinks started, I hardly got one in my mouth as I was doing sooo o much talking.

I first announced Matt & Co for the Barber shop quartet, I never knew Matt could sing like that and I'm sure everyone was very impressed. I sure was, go Matt you rock my world. Then we cruised into the reception where everyone got seated. There was alot of space and boy it was a big room. Nice choice on the venue Mel.

There just seemed to be endless speeches probably because I announced them all, but I did enjoy the night. Seventy people were there and I found that more than enough for a wedding I do hope everyone had a good time though. I found some time to do a little boggie woggie afterwards as did everyone else.

Once the night had finished we all went to our respective abodes, but what took place there won't be published here. I will have to leave that in the annals of my memory, all and all it was a very good weeekend.

Sorry for the rushed post but I have alot to catchup on. I've been really lazy lately. When I got back from the weekend I was soooo tired and put to work immediately..... and of course there has been a lady in my life for the past couple of months. More on that later.

NZ Trip Melissa Wedding

Rangitoto & Auckland

Jamie and John Howard

2007-02-09T08:36:00.000Z

Well today I had lunch with John Howard, it was a big lunch and we obviously had some very important issues to talk about. Overall he was impressed and glad that Kiwi's were working in Australia and why not, he gave me a handshake and offered a photo opportunity. Good on you Johnny you can come stop by Auckland any day.

p.s. have been way busy to post on my site lately though check out my zoo photo's and my work do one's in my web album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie.nicholson

PMQ Australian PM John Howard

Cam and Leon rip up Port Macquarie

2006-12-31T08:07:00.000Z

By my calculations the boyz were arriving in the late afternoon, but I hadn't a clue when as they're phones were off. They came in from Sydney and grabbed a hire car, it was four hours drive to Port Macquarie.

Apparently they didn't use a map and just "arrived at Port Macquarie", yeah right! They came unstuck when they didn't have my apartment number, there was only about 20 apartments to go through and boy did they go through them. A couple of young girls at the gate giggled at them as they went through all the numbers and the people said "No Jamie isn't here".

Eventually I got a buzz and came down, needless to say they were very happy to see me. I was happy to see them to, it's been quiet at Port and work has been real busy so I was super glad to see the lads. They relaxed a little we grabbed some dinner and attacked the Duty Free - Jack Daniels. They purchased 6 bottles of 'Jack' these guys have real class. Even as I write there's a bottle sitting on the bench looking straight at me!

It was a reasonably quiet night but Cam was approached by a certain old lady at 'Down Under' or sometimes referred to as 'Grab a Granny', she wanted to have a dance and more I bet. Although Cam was very shy on this occasion and declined to dance. Later we met these 3 'emo girls' on the street they were filming us. Can you believe it, we harassed them for abit and they really didn't say much but we had a good laugh at them all the same and took a few photo's for you're pleasure.

The next morning the boys were very tired and a little worse for wear but me and Leon managed to go for a long walk along the local break wall, it was a stunning day and we relaxed and enjoyed the weather. Cam woke up, jezz he is the sleeper! We went on the Port Venture and that was pretty cool, the boyz enjoyed it. You've already seen he Port Venture so I won't go on about it again.

It was Friday night and the boyz were looking for some local talent. Or perhaps the local talent was looking for them I don't know. My new camera (Canon EOS-400D) took many pictures and I'm sure you'll all be happy with all the pics. Dinner was at the Town Green Inn and it was very scrumptious, if you're ever in Port Macquarie make sure you go. Rach/Barry/Debbie and Debbies new man were also dining at the Town Green Inn, I had to take the opportunity to get Rach's number and catch up with them later. Rachs a babe from the office, we didn't end up catching up though unfortunately.

Cam and Leon were both in full form that night dancing hard! We started at the Beach House and then quickly moved onto the Macquarie Inn, Leon seemed to be a hit with the ladies and there's even some evidence in the album. I couldn't help but take a few shots, me and Cam were impressed and started clapping Leon on literally. I think the ladies were just taking advantage of Leon because they had several other boyfriends as well :)

Then we went onto Altitudes which really sucked so we went to the dodgy Down Under again. It was real funny because we were dancing and the guys were all just staring at the dance floor. The ladies were all on the dance floor and at some late stage a few did what I refer to as the Indian dance around me! I've never had this move pulled on me yet but it was pretty cool. They just circle you and dance around you.

So after all the clubbing the next morning we went for a walk and had a look at the fruit bats, Port Macquarie has a huge population of them and they're abit scary, but very cool. At lunchtime we decided to head for the hills and take off to the Gold Coast and as we speak I'm blogging from Raymond's apartment. The property manager came in just now and went real crazy, she's nuts! She accused us of doing drugs setting off fire crackers and throwing out ciggies off the side of the building and ontop of that we go out at night as well!

We've done no drugs, no smokes, no firecrackers then she physically abused Raymond's Mum and we told her to get out and sober up. What a new year's greeting! Perhaps my pterodactyl's impersonation or Leon's monkey call were the fire crackers. Anyway it was all abit silly!

Happy New years everyone and take care.
Love Jamie

Port Macquarie - New Years

Port Arrival Cam_Leon

Port Macquarie Christmas

2006-12-25T20:43:00.000Z

Hi guys well Christmas has been and gone hope you all enjoyed the festivities and Santa treated you well. As usual a few kg's have hit the waist line though luckily I'm keeping up my running so hopefully it will all slide off.

I'm so glad work has finished, it was manic there for awhile, now it's just time to relax. You'll see in my photo's my end of year work lunch @ Finnagin's it's a local Irish bar.

It was a really sunny day, I got a bit too much sun and stumbled off home early. Then slept for a record 12 and a half hours straight. A couple of the other's suffered the same fate, strange really not all of us had that much to drink.

Christmas eve came and I went out with Ken and Robbie, Ken is from Country Energy and has been in Port for 5 years and Robbie is a local councillor and press secretary for the deputy prime minister. Went to the beach house and boy there was some talent there, everyone must of come back to see their friends and families in Port.

Saw Tania (Blair's cousin) and her crew there to and had a chat with them, turned out one of the girls Carol previously worked with Jo (my boss) and we had a big old chat. Everyone that has worked with Peace is usually from NZ so it was nice to catchup with a true blue kiwi. Tania invited me and the boys around for a BBQ on Thursday, Cam and Leon arrive here then so that will fit in nicely.

The girls and Robbie left around midnight and me and Ken thought we'd check out the local bar Macquarie, after being there ten minutes I decided the crowd was just to young. The medium age was 18 and so we called it a night and got to bed before Santa came...

Well I'm still waiting for Santa, he's on a late schedule this year, guess that's what you get when you live overseas :) Melissa (sis) hasn't had to many presents from me lately so I got her a big one this year thanks to Matt's (Mel's man to be) great idea. Anyway so yeah I got a towel for Christmas from Jo (boss), thanks Jo. She made a lovely lunch and dinner for Christmas, Ken came over to and we all wore those cheesy hats you get in cracker. The weather turned a little funky and I got some lovely shots of the clouds.

It's boxing day today and people from Sydney are meant to arrive and fill up every piece of spare accommodation in Port Macquarie. That's at least an extra 30,000 people and that's double the population here, so yeah wozzers, traffic galore apparently.

Hope you are all doing well, Merry Christmas and a Happy new years.

Love Jamie

Christmas Eve_Day 2006

Final Year Work Lunch 2006

Mathew Can Dance

2006-12-17T21:10:00.000Z

Another short post, not much to report in Port Macqaurie, however my brother Mathew sure can dance.

Last weekend he went to Melbourne and entered in the under 19 division.
As usual he kicked ass :)

He came 1st in New Vogue, 2nd in Latin and 3rd in Ballroom.
Check out these pictures.

The girl on the floor is his partner Sam.

Mathew Dancing

Tommies FDU End of Year Christmas Party

2006-12-10T11:59:00.000Z

Work Christmas do, was very cool. It was a really really really yummy dinner and everyone had a good time. There was a show, some drag and dance at the end of the night. Very cool.

Short post.
Love Jamie

Tommies

NZ Trip N Bexs Party

2006-12-06T10:23:00.000Z

Leaving Port Macqaurie - Thursday

I set off from Country Energy on Nov 30th @ lunchtime, Chantal gave me a a lift to the local airport to catch a flight to Sydney, and onto an international flight to NZ.

Both flights were half an hour late, which was lucky, otherwise I would have missed the connecting flight. I managed to find my way around Sydney airport but it was a little confusing.

On the flight over I sat next to a Korean girl(25) Katherine, she was going to live in NZ for a year to learn English and fulfill a dream of traveling to an English speaking country. In South Korea she'd been a model and a receptionist and hadn't quite found her place in life. She was was staying in Forest Hill (North Shore), it was rather amusing talking to her as she wasn't crash hot at English but seemed to pronounce everything really well. I'm sure I talked way to much as I was very excited about getting home and catching up with everyone.

Arriving in NZ

At the airport Josh and Kez greeted me, Kez and Josh are really good mates in NZ and they put up with me for half my stay . Josh put me in his lounge on a mattress, thanks Josh you rock! Kez gave me a lift in the mighty pimp machine, anyway we went back to Josh's and then proceeded to go out for a quick booggie at G-Lobe. We caught up on all the goss and then crashed. The next morning I caught a bus to Takapuna.

Catching up with People - Friday

Arrived at Mum's in the morning @ 7:30am, there didn't seem to be any movement in the house. So I went around the back to admire the garden Allan had been working on. It was very nice, me and Allan had worked on it last year and I was pleased to see he'd done an excellent job.

Just then Allan popped open the bedroom door and announced that Grandma was on the phone and wanted to talk to me. Very strange indeed, unannounced and unexpected I went inside and had a good old chat to Grandma Harts. She's doing so well and she's such a social butterfly, I'm sure I've inherited some of her jaw :)

Mel was asleep so I pounded around the house in the hope of waking her up... (*grin*) and she did wake up! We had a chat and talked like two birds. Mum looked as happy as a clam, and quite rightly so, it's not everyday Mel from Boston is in the house and now me from Port Macquarie, Australia.

After a quick coffee I drove Mum to work and then went shopping with Mel in Takapuna. After that Mel went get her makeup done and I caught up with my good ole friend Lisa. We only had half an hour so we had a coffee in Takapuna. I found out Lisa actually reads my blog so she knew everything I'd been up to, very cool. After that I went to One Red dog and had lunch with all my old work mates. Everyone looked a little stressed but it was good to catch up with them, apparently Leon has caught up the slack of my old job 'te he he', I doubt it :-) . Service and food at One Red Dawg was actually good for a change, I was shocked to say the least.

After all that, I had a well deserved sleep back @ mums. Leon came over and Mel cooked dumplings very tasty, it was the only meal I had that night. Then off to Bex's 21st, we picked up Jason Barlow on the way, funnily enough he only had jeans as you'll see in the pix. Fancy coming all the way from Amsterdam and only bringing jeans. Well Jason updated me on Amsterdam and he's done very well for himself, congrats Jason glad you've finally made it :) Anyway we arrived at Ponies and they all let us in... Shocking as you'll find out later!

Bex's 21st - Part 1

It wasn't just Bex's 21st but for the purposes of this blog it can be :) Ponies was the venue it's a downtown bar next to showgirls and it's very pretentious and high class. Not exactly my style but Bex and her girlfriends were very happy with it all so that was the main thing!

Jason, Leon, Cam and I walked in and well everyone was dressed to the nines! Bex was looking stunning, I bought Rebecca 'Young Sexy Lovely' for a gift and a vibrating shaver. Since Cam doesn't usually buy gifts I wrapped the shaver and put his name on it, Cam & Rebecca had a run in at one time in regards to shaver use. So it was very funny and I'm sure Bex was found it funny as did Cam. Rebecca introduced me to Danyon Loader (NZ Swimmer Gold medalist) whom I'd met at 'Dancing with the stars' and he proceeded to talk to me about his new career - public speaking. Boy Danyon could talk, I was glad Mel came along because I wanted to catch up with Gaily from Gore.

Gailey and Sink were up from Gore and they're great family friends so we had a wee chat. Sarah was also up from Gore and she danced with Rebecca in Gore, they were real old school friends. Anyway after that the music was turned up and I could no longer hear so we just danced and Auntie Nancy danced with me very funny. Leon wanted to visit TelstraClear because there were some ladies there he had to catch up with and I couldn't possibly refuse catching up with ladies.

So I told Dad we would be out for abit, and there was no schedule for the speeches or anything really so we unfortunately missed them. Sorry Bex (not that she reads my blog :p). Bex was talking to everyone on the night and I didn't really expect to talk to her that much, but we caught up at Matthew's end of year party which was very cool.

TelstraClear Party - Part 1

Jason, Cam, Leon and I went to the TelstraClear end of year function. We all got in and the place was packed. It was classic because everyone thought I'd come back to TelstraClear... I told them I came back for the free drink, it was all free incidentally which was very cool, although I only had 2 drinks. I spent most of the night talking and hardly any booze passed between my lips. Meanwhile Cam, Leon and Jason were getting hammered. On top of all this the venue had many different parts to it and I lost everyone about 3 or 4 times. Although we did meet some very cool girls from Price Waterhouse Cooper Melbourne, which were working in NZ. Leon tells me one took quite a liking to me, but I think he had one take quite a liking to him (see pix - lost some of em). So after trying to round up everyone 4 times I finally suceeded and we went back to Bex's party afterwards.

Bex's 21st - Part 2

Back at Bex's, we rolled in just as the speeches had finished and we partied hard. Dwayne had come in to finally and we rocked on down, again you couldn't really hear anyone so there was little talking. I did go and say hi to Tim Shadbolt and his wife Usher(SP). Otherwise we just boogied on down, after awhile we decided to sneak back to the TelstraClear party and catch up with the ladies and that's where the night went all wrong.

TelstraClear Party - Part 2

We arrived and it turned out all the people were going home, mainly the PWC girls. But I did catchup with Gina-Marie and Anita. These girls maintain the guys stares at TelstraClear for 80% of the time. Gina is an OLD school friend and Anita was wearing one of Gina's fashion outfits. They were very cool and it was funny to catchup with Gina, she told me I looked as old as Anita's father. So I must be loosing my boyish looks... no matter men get more distinguished as they get older, she tried to rephrase it but I wasn't to impressed. After all Gina is the same age as me, perhaps older :p! I thought it was just the girls in Australia that said these things but no Kiwi girls are just as bad! This is the second time a girl has told me I look old enough to be a father. Perhaps she's been reading my blog to :) After a quick stop we headed back to Bex's.

Bex's 21st - Part 3 - Disaster Strikes

Cameron and Jason had vanished by this stage and it was just me, Leon and Dwayne. So we rocked up to the door and we were denied. They wouldn't let us in and said that Rebecca wasn't there and that everyone from the party had gone home. What a load a bull s@^$, so I just said fine lets go. Fancy that coming all the way from Australia to be denied at the door or your sisters 21st. Never again will I step foot in that place they've definitely lost my custom and respect. Not that they probably need it, Ponies is for pretentious people with lots of money. So I was angry and Dwayne and Leon wanted to go to some bar I didn't really want to go to either. I wanted to meet up with Kez and Josh as it was still early in the night. As usual people all thought different things and I said sure you do that. I was still angry so I just sat outside a bar and calmed down for half an hour and decided to make the most of the night. I went back to ponies to see if anyone had come out but they hadn't. Then when I went back to the bar Dwayne and Leon had gone into they were no where to be seen.... So I was alone, no phone, no friends and in Auckland on a Friday night. What a crapper, on the off chance that Josh and Kez were at Globe I went there.

Globe

The bouncer at the door said the boys are downstairs, Globe is my local and although it is a crap bar you're sure to get in and there are always plenty of ladies. Josh and Kez were happy to see me and we boogied on down. After that we went to Providore and it wasn't to eventful. However after that we waited in an atm line, Kez was asking all the girls if they were pregnant and of course none of them were and then he proceeded to say something that upset one of the girls ALOT. So she ran over and went nuts, I told her all the boys were drunk and that they were all talking shit and she shouldn't take any notice.... So then she slapped me (2nd time a girl got violent this week), I took a couple of steps back then she went after Josh and Kez. We were rolling with laughter, she had just lost it and some boys were trying to calm her down. Ahh what a shocker, so we caught a taxi back to Josh's and crashed. Kez went somewhere else, he had a few things to attend to.

Lunch at Mums & the rest - Saturday

Lunch at Mums the next day was nice, I had lots of Turkey and had a sleep. It was our Christmas day, since I won't actually be in NZ on Christmas. That night I went out for abit with the boyz again and then had an early flight back to Port Macquarie. I've been recovering all week and finally got around to finishing off this post.

Hope you are all well.
Love Jamie

NZ Trip 2006 Dec 1st

Port Venture Weekend

2006-11-26T09:37:00.000Z

Hey guys, this week was really good, work wasn't to bad this week and there was a little bit less pressure on which is all good. I'm getting used to it all now.
Came third Wednesday night @ poker and unfortunately it was the last poker night :( and an early night on Wednesday.

I've read six books since I've been in Australia, about one a week. It's been great to spend so much time reading however I think I'll give it a rest for awhile. It's starting to heat up abit as well up to 31 degrees. At lunchtime I walk back to my apartment and go for a swim in the lap pool. It's good to have a pool in my apartment complex, it's very refreshing and will be great in summertime when Leon and Cam visit.

Went to the movies on Friday with Ken, Debbie, Barry (Californian millionaire) and Rachael (office hottie) we saw Borat, Borat, Borat, a flithy, dirty, raw and hilarious movie. It's not everyday you see something so crass but it has it's place under 'comedy reality movie'. Everyone really enjoyed it, but I'm very glad it was only an hour and a half. I can only handle so much rubbish.

Saturday for lunch, I met up with Blair's cousins finally (thanks Bex). It was like a meeting of the xpat Kiwi's, there was

Tania - Blairs cousin from NZ come migrated Port local.

Jason - Tania's boyfriend Jason(bouncer/kick boxer).

'H' and Ashley, 'H' was from NZ and was a local bouncer(kick boxer).

Jason has his own martial arts studio, once I get my car I'll go check it out. Now that I know half the bouncers in port going out should be very safe :)

Saturday night was cool another night of clubbing with Ken and Shoiab(Pakistan) another guy from work. There was lots of dancing and we met up with some guys from poker, they were dancing HARD OUT. One of the guys had sweet pouring off him, it was a little gross. FYI Mum - Met a few girls but nothing to serious :p.

Sunday I woke up late and spent most of the day doing chores, however I went and got a ticket on Port Venture for 25 bucks. Port Venture is a 2 hour cruise around the Hasting river and the Port area. It was good fun, I saw the dolphins, car ferries, big houses and had swim in the boom net. The day was sunny and it was very relaxing.

Tonight I've ironed all my shirts and am real keen to see everyone from home again, it's only been 7 weeks but I'll be going back this Thursday for Bex's 21st on Friday. If you've got any good idea's as what she wants for her birthday let me know :) It's going to be one huge party and it will be great to catch up with my family and crew.

Port Venture N Wasps

Take care, be good, but not to good :)
Love Jamie

Twisted Ankle

2006-11-12T21:43:00.000Z

This weekend I decided to go car shopping and I was told by my boss that there would be plenty of 2nd hands on Ocean View Drive. Ocean View drive was about 5km's so I decided to run there. Next time I'll use one of those vouchers and hire a car :)

Checked google maps as to which route I should take, and set off @ 10am.
After successfully navigating through the back streets to Lake Rd there wasn't much distance to travel before my destination. Although as fate would have it, there were people working on the power lines and they were even throwing electrical wire down from the poles. This was a little disturbing and there were a number of workers so I veered away from the curb and straight into an invisible hole. These are holes that you cannot see in the grass, lurking to injure foolish runners.

And I was one of them, my right foot fell into the hole and found ground then I twisted the foot and heard a crack as something nasty happened in my foot. Probably a piece of ligament tearing. I doubled over and exlaimed "ouchie, owchie" whilst holding onto my foot, rocking in pain. An electricity worker came over and he saw it all happen and offered a lift home. So off I went, Lewis gave me a ride home and boy he just couldn't stop talking. I don't know how many times he said "it's good in port aye" but it just seemed like forever.

Eventually I hoped back into my apartment building up in the lift and crashed on my reclining sofa with a pack of pea's and stayed there for quite sometime. After sleeping on my ankle I can walk on it and the swelling ain't to bad but it is a little tender. My boss was really good about the whole thing and her hubby can run me down to the Dr's, but since I can walk on it I'll see how I go tomorrow.

I've read up on it on the net and found some very interesting stuff on rehabilitation, here's an extract.

It's extremely important not to limp when you walk and bear weight on an injured ankle, even if it is necessary to use crutches. If you walk with a limp, the position-sensing nerves in the foot quickly forget the correct way to walk and instead learn to limp. Subtle changes in this function can leave you with a chronically imbalanced ankle that is easily re injured.

So I'm at home with my foot elevated and toughing it out :)
Hope you are well and are doing stupid stuff as well.

Love Jamie

Green Inn Win!

2006-11-08T13:54:00.000Z

What a night to remember! No pictures but boy what a story.

I signed up for poker and I was lucky 13th signing up. There turned out to be about 16 people for poker that night. At 10oclock I'd cleaned everyone out! I won $60 and the entry fee was free.... Aweeeeesum!

So after that I went to dodgy Downunder with Ken (workmate) to celebrate, we met up with another guy from work and talked for an hour or so. Then we hit the dance floor, and I did some big bad dancing, at one stage there was just four of us on the dance floor dancing to techno. Most locals don't go for techno, but I was ripping it up.

And then another song came and a sexy girl in the bar decided to close dance into me(this is a rare occurrence)! That was all good but what was funnier was when she caught her hair in my shirt button as she danced down my body. She got caught to such an extent my shirt was lifting off my body and another girl had to sort it out!

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo funny, she was embarrassed and took off, will have to catch up with her next week .

Winning poker is worth $60 but having a girl getting caught in you're shirt button on the dance floor is PRICELESS :)

Be sure to leave comments, and click on my other posts (Rachel's 21st @ Inverell). I've posted like 8 times in October, I'm abit of a blogger :)

Love Jamie

Rachaels 21st @ Inverell Australia

2006-11-06T23:06:00.000Z

Yeah baby! Inverell :-)

Rachael's 21st was the best party out and it was my first road trip in Australia.
Although the weather was crap so I rarely ventured out of the car.

Rented the car from Avis, turns out they're the biggest rip off artist ever! I had two free days car hire compliments of my boss, but it still turned out to cost $150, all those hidden costs... Sigh, it was an experience I don't want to repeat and I'll be sending them an e-mail with my complaint. I'm guessing most rental car places always rip you off though.

Anyway my road trip was from Port Macquarie to Inverell, it was 350kms in total. With about 60km of windy roads, and about 70kms of roads at 110km speed limit (cool eh :) ). The Holden was a nice drive though at times it felt like a big concrete slab, I'm used to tiny Toyota's!

There was a lovely falls along the way Ashely falls, my pictures don't do it justice as the depth of them was massive. I'm going to plan some track walks for the boyz when they come over.

Bundarra 10kms from Inverell had a population of 400 people, I was abit worried thinking maybe Inverell had a similar population. Luckily they had a population of 11,000, Rachael's 21st was at the Australian Pub, though she told me it was on the main street, so after going to two other pubs I finally turned up at the Australian.

I arrived at the party @ 5pm and everyone was dressed fancy! My jeans weren't going to stack up, however I wasn't near home and that's all I had. Turned out, it was just the girls and a few guys that had dressed up which so I didn't stick out to much after all :)

The girls were really nice and the boyz were friendly to, I met this girl that was 19 and coded in php, c++ and was a qualified interior designer. She was a cutie and a fun dancer - she kept wanting to do drops and at one stage I swear she was 10cm from the ground, :p only in Inverell.

Anyway I met heaps of people that night and had heaps of fun, there was even a power outage, someone drove into a nearby pole which caused a power outage for about an hour. Rachael was abit distressed however, Luke the musician was still playing, it was to bad.

At the end of the night Emily bought me a drink after I insulted her about her activities with animals (she's a vet). So this just goes to show, girls will buy you drinks in Australia but only after you insult them :) Thanks NZ Anna T (she advised me on this before I left). Emily was like Rachael's best friend and single! But I didn't get a chance to woo her to much :p she just had so many boys to deal with.

The night ended at about 2am and I trotted up to my bed upstairs in the pub, it was only 25 bucks a night - four beds in my room with one double... very nice :)

So I'll be going back to Inverell on boxing day for abit of a laugh, apparently it's packed round that time. The next morning I had dinner with the ole folks Tony, Jude, Donna and Gregory.

The trip home was uneventful and I took a few photo's from the car, again it was wet. All and all it was a good weekend and alot of fun had.

Thanks to Rachael and Jason for being such great friends!

Click the picture to see all the pictures in my Picassa album.

Inverell Road Trip - Rach 21st

Heres a video with some dancing.

Stains 24th - six or sex

2006-10-29T01:10:00.001+01:00

Another week has passed and I'm finally getting settled into Port, met so many good people and I'm having a great time. Though I'm missing all my kiwi friends and hope you all are good.

At poker I've met many good friends and Josh aka DJ Stains is just one of them, he invited me to his 24th party down at the local trailer park. Stains had booked out a cabin/house(it was upmarket) and threw the party there.

I didn't know anyone at the but I met Ash(he business partner & friend of Stains) introduced me to everyone and made sure they knew I was a kiwi. Then the jokes started something about sex and six, I responded saying sex(actually six Aussie version) and they couldn't quite pick it, so I had to let out a six(Kiwi version), a few giggles followed.

It helped break the ice and break the nerves abit, then I met Rod, Adam, Dylan, Curby, Emily, Slim, Brian and many others. We all went nightclubbing and I had a great time, although I got abit drunk and tired and bailed early. All and all though it was very cool :-)

Thanks Stains for such an awesome night and everyone for being so kool to the token kiwi. Next week I'm off to Rachel's 21st in Inverell yeaaaaaaaaha :)

You can see my album here, decided not to paste the pictures in my blog now.

24thStains

Here's my new apartment as well all moved in, cable next week fingers crossed :)

Port Macquarie Apartment

Chat enabled web page

2006-10-21T07:32:00.000+01:00

My Blog now has a chat program on it! Anyone who is on the blog can chat to other people that are on my Blog, not that many people are on my Blog for long. Anyway thought it would be fun to add.

John and Shelleys Wedding

2006-10-12T10:08:00.000+01:00

Honestly Queenstown? What was Shelley thinking, me and Cam booked tickets in advance which was lucky for us :) Turned out that Cam and I were booked on the same flight as Allan, it was a good trip down from Auckland only an hour and a half. Once we arrived we jumped in the rental and met up with the wedding crew. Everyone looked stressed, with only 4 hours to the wedding. So we left them to it and went straight to the pub! Where else would you go?

So we had a couple of beers and pizza's, nice service and there was a nice Swedish bar gal, we have a good ole chat. Her parting remarks were get absolutely wasted tonight, she'd been to 5 weddings recently and must of been enjoying them. Now that I think about it, she must of known the bar staff at Stoneridge(wedding venue) because the bar staff there just kept pouring drinks for us all night!

So after we relaxed a little we headed to the wedding and had to change on a dirt road, was rather amusing my black shoes turned dust colour but it all worked out. Stoneridge was a beautiful venue, and the views were Queenstown magnificent. You'll know if you go :) The ceremony was held in a qaint little chapel and it was brief and formal - very cool. Followed by a 10 minutes of photo's and abit of chatter. Then it was up to the bar :)

And low and behold there was this very georgeous bar gal Fee :) Fee just kept pouring drinks for everyone all night. Usually before you had finished you're last one she would pop over with another, honestly that girl was trained well! So we all had drinks and socialised. It was great to meet up with the cousins and see how they were all doing. Once that was all done we went inside and had some speeches, food and more drink!

The speeches were funny and very verbose, the speeches were perhaps longer than the ceremony. Allen was the master of cermonies and he did a very good job not that I can really remeber any of what was said :) Mum song a poem and Grandma said something really good, I thought it was just spot on. Shelley thanked everyone individually and Mikey tried to do the same but I interuppted him to much before he finished and well he just finished mid way through. I'm just terrible. John and his x brother in law(his name escapes me) both gave dashing speeches, perhaps a little to much dash and not enough peeper :)(te he he)

Once I'd gave Fee and good talking to and I had more than enough liqour Cam and I were taken courtsey of Wayne to Queenstown central for more festivities. Well I was quite happy by this stage and Cam kept buying me drinks, which he invariably drank or left. We went to a couple of bars and Cameron met a bouncer whom he know from the Te Anua days it was all very cool. After a while we stumbled back home to our motel.

The next day we had breakfast and left back to Auckland! What an awesome wedding and judging by the photo's what a great place. It gives me idea for my wedding.... oh that's right up single .

Sorry for the delay on the post.
Love Jimmer

Check out these photos and video's

My personal favourite of the trip Allen(Stepfather) making faces :)

This guy just played music in the background very cool.

Good little shot of the olds Mum and Allen.

And you thought you were tough, my cousin Aaron(Waynes son) is definately tough!

But wait here's his brother Bevan! Go Bevan Go, Bevan's a racer.

My cousin in law, Lij Mikael(what a name! spelling compliements of Shelley)

My other cousin Paul(Aunt Shelleys son), he didn't need to pull a tough face, he just was tough!

Here's Mike he's a hard arse!

John pulled the deal off and obviously boasting, good on him.

Mum and Cam just real happy about it.

Who's a cutie little couple- Shelley n John.

Look I'm having the flowers right, get you're flithy hands off.

Me blinded.

Cam blinded.

Another pix of the venue.

Local talent in Qtown :) Looks like summer? Sure felt like it

Cam in queenstown pimping hard ourside Louis, go Cam!

Paul going hard!

The boys.

Funny Paul

Sexy Fee!

Real bad lighting, not very good footage. I've got some other pix and video but they ain't as good.

So that's all folks, big post.

Poker @ the Green Inn

2006-10-12T05:49:00.000+01:00

Last night I played in a no-cash poker tourney and I made it to fourth place, unfortunately only 1st and 2nd had cash prizes so I didn't win anything.

However I met Jason, Rachael and Tony who were also playing poker and they invited me to a wedding this Saturday! And ontop of that they invited me to a 21st on Monday. HARD! So I had a few drinks and then it was off to the bar next door for a few more with my new friends.

They were all on holiday for 2 weeks and ply'd me with liquor, so I have somewhat of a hangover this morning. Had a good time, they actually have a little night life here at Port.

Yeah so I'm pretty tired @ work today, got home at 2am! So it's off to the shops now to buy some more work clothes. Everyone wears business attire around here minus the tie. Pretty stink but I'm putting up with it.

On the house front it looks like I'll be getting the 3bdrm with pool so be sure to e-mail if you're planning a trip. That's me for now.

First Day At First Data

2006-10-09T10:45:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone!

Sunday I took the greyhound bus to Port Macquarie from Gold Coast Airport.
And it was a long 9 hour journey with a few stops....

Anyway arrived at Port, went to my Motel - which incidently is crap. Had some room service which was good. Then had some sleep 8:30pm - 6:00am, 9 and half hours mmmmmmmmmm

Had breakfast and shower steamed my shirt followed by a quick iron. All dressed up like a gangsta I rocked off to work. Should have taken a picture but I had more on my mind.

So went off to work - County Energy; and met my contact and boss Jo. She's awesome though openly can be abit of a micro manager! Yikes, anyway I can deal with that my first boss Paula was like that and more.

They even had a keycard with my picture on it, complements of friends at TelstraClear. I logged in setup my T42 IBM laptop and tried to get everything working, everything worked apart from my e-mail. Perhaps the firewall is blocking it, dam firewalls.

I'm working with an Indian Rishi and have another project manager boss Lee and someone else that's away. I'll be staying at Ben's apartment until I choose my abode and I can take time off work to find it! Mum will be happy :)

The accomadation is expensive here! Well prolly more scarce than expensive, but I'm deciding what to do, pay 350/week for 3bdroom(furnished) or flat with someone 110/week. I can write the 350 off against exps and reduce my tax and have some ppl to stay or go flatting meet some more ppl but no write off and no ppl staying. I'm guessing not many ppl will want to stay anyway it's a big call. Updated - looks like I've found a place for $230 / week yay!

So tomorrow I'll be looking @ houses in my work time :) (chuckle chuckle)

The work seems really easy, and the place really cool but small. I'm happy but will need to get a cheap car, fast internet connection and meet a few ppl in this small town.

For those interested yes theres fishing in Port Macquarie - not that I'll probably do that much.

Went for a walk the other morning and everyone is surfing before work, pretty cool huh.

Hope you are all happy and well.

Love Jamie