Oct 2007

Well, it can be said......the Houghtons were sick and tired of being on holiday, yes, I have no hesitation in announcing that to the world! We were delighted to be able to think that, at last, we would continue with our "normal lives" (is there such a thing?) and at last get back into jobs and begin to earn some long awaited British pounds to enable our poor little bank account to recover and keep the bankruptcy proceedings at bay. Celebration at last, the Houghtons have jobs, only thing...... there is "trouble at mill"!

Alas, there is something to be said about commuting in London....and I know that in a week or two we will think nothing of it, because Noel and I will have adapted, but commuting here really is a "life experience" and one that needs to be addressed.....

We should never take for granted how we travel to work....our own car with radio, air-con, automatic, stereo, cd player, driving along the Southern Motorway in a mere 3 lanes of traffic, - a dream come true in our minds....the Pakuranga Highway, Waipuna Bridge, Eastern Arterial .... piece of cake .....! Come and work in London.

We live close to all amenities and public transport, which is fortunate for us as we can use the buses, the tube or the overland train which takes us into one of the busiest(and largest) stations in London (Waterloo) from which the famous Eurostar departs from as well.

Noel works off Oxford Street. I work off Fleet Street. Journey time takes one hour (easy stuff we hear you say!). HELL NO! Both of us leave together in the mornings (after a 6.30am alarm) and we head off on different tube lines to be at work by 9am. But what a trek.....no matter what time you leave in the mornings, the tube arrives at the station to a very packed platform. The double doors on the train open wide and you just cannot get on the train ...the commuters are squeeezed in like sardines, the isles are jammed packed, the windows fogged up on the train, and although we look up at those lucky ones on board with pleading eyes to let us on, no one says a word, no one even looks at us, the doors suddenly close, the tube chugs away, you remain left behind, and again you wait for the next tube ......and time ticks by.....

And the same thing happens, another packed train full of commuters, too full to allow you on, and again you step back and wait .....and again....what? third time lucky.....we wish!! And suddenly you realise you have spent 15 minutes trying to leave the station! Time ticks by .....9am is creeping up real quick!

But what's weird about this whole scenario is that the English never complain about it, our workmates just shrug their shoulders and carry on with their work, I seem to arrive in a huff and puff and ready to blow hot air around the room, just to recover from my morning commute, hot and sweaty (yuck), but the POMS are blase and just continue on with their working day....you gotta admire them for their patience and politeness, no road rage (er should I say tube rage) here, I guess that's why we love Londoners so much!

The time will come (and I think sooner rather than later) when Noel and I won't even notice a packed tube, people pressing themselves up against you and invading personal space without making eye contact, still reading their paper in the process, holding on to anything for balance, a full platform, a queue to get through the "oyster barriers", a long ride up the escalator to the top, that feeling of cold fresh air against your face as you head for the station exit. This, we realise, is London. This is how one commutes, conquer this, you will accept the London lifestyle.

For those of you who know London, we spied out a great tee-shirt ...."Mind the Gap" is recited thousands of time over the loud speaker through all the stations to deal with the wide gap between the platform and the tube train. We found a great tee shirt in a souvenir shop which sums up the daily commute in this wonderful city of London ...."f**** the gap!" We just gotta buy that soon!

Job wise though all going well, we are both fitting in nicely, getting on with our jobs, coming to terms with having no coffee or tea making facilities on site, and having no proper lunch hour, no one seems to leave their desks all day, and sharing an office, desks, phones, stationery, printers, with about 50 other colleagues no windows or natural light.......gotta love London. Maybe our kiwi employers want us back??! You can see why we question ourselves as to why we are here.....!

We had Teva (Noel's golfing buddie) stay at the Fool em Flat who enjoyed a golf game at Stockley Golf Course last week (Noel won 2 and 1) much to Teva's disgust. He reckoned the room service wasn't up to scratch! We caught up with our lovely Danish friends at the surprise dinner in Nottinghill last weekend, Kirsten, Bende and Regina (lots of laughter), we caught up quickly with Carol Woods and Suzanne from Howick (on Sunday) in a quiet little mews street right behind the hustle and bustle of Knightsbridge and enjoyed a drink, great girls, great kiwis, great fun....

Better go, have a train to catch (ha ha).....we are heading to Edinburgh this weekend to enable Moundie and Noel to play golf at St Andrews (no doubt another adventure follows), and I am catching up with a NZ couple whom I have not seen since 1985! Keep up the good work on the emails, we love hearing from you all, from a rather "harrassed working couple of commuters"! Til next time, Elsie and Noel!

As our last visitors checked out of the 'Fool 'em Flat' Noel, I headed north to Oxford for a "surprise" birthday party for David Gibbs (Highland Park) whose lovely daughter Victoria, was organising. Noel and I hired a car and headed to a National Trust manor along the way called "Waddesdon Manor" a late 19th century in the style of a 16th century french chateau. The manor was built for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild to entertain his guests and display his vast collection of arts, furniture, carpets and enormous collection of french porcelain. It was all too grandeouse for us wee poor kiwis in Fulham still it was a gorgeous sunny day and we enjoyed the Houghton homemade ham sandwiches in the victorian garden.

We managed to arrive in time for David and Sue Gibbs' 'surprise' entry to the hotel at Shillingford, where we dined on fine red wine, seafood and pork, it was lovely to see David and Sue and meet their extended family, who made us feel extremely welcome.

We arrived back to London to be greeted with fantastic news that Noel had secured a job with a Danish/UK engineering company called Ramboll Whitbybird based off Oxford Street near Tottenham Court Road. The job is in the finance department and it will involve some travelling to Dubai. Poor Noel, had a slow start to working, as it had been 5 long months since he had sat behind a computer desk and put his brain to use, and he had to get used to the open plan office, 50 colleagues working alongside each other, and not a lunchroom in sight! The poms here seem to sit at their desks all day long, and not take any sort of breaks at all, Noel decided he needed to enjoy his homemade vegemite and cheese sandwiches whilst endeavouring to complete the daily suduko. God, how he missed his old workmates at Eurolift last week!

And the luck of the Irish shone down upon Elsie as she was fortunate to secure a staff recruitment position as a consultant in Holborn, the heart of the legal district in London, with potential to set up a Legal desk and recruit staff for legal firms, whilst also securing solicitors firms to use the recruitment company. The company is called Parkhouse Bell and already Elsie has started chatting up prospective business contacts in the local pub! Hey, its called networking - Go Elsie!

We have met some more interesting people here, we met a lovely couple, Elise and Fraser Devere from Fielding way, who are neighbours and we entertained them with Elsie's famous lasagne, chocolate cake and cheap red vino (is there any other sort?) and we ended in the tiny kitchen all night eating wining and dining - great fun, a typical kiwi party in the kitchen!

We have more friends arriving from New Zealand, the 'Fool 'em Flat' is really busy, one of Noel's great golfing buddies, Teva Loos, is arriving this weekend for a game of golf with Noel, and following we have Moundie (Ian Mound) arriving for a 10 day visit, so there will be loads of entertaining and fun times ahead.

This is written the day after the disappointing loss to France, and I hesitate to even mention the rugby at this point, but Noel and I, together with our friends, Wanda & Glyn from Godalming, took a "Beige Brigade" bus tour to Cardiff for the event. We have never ever seen so many kiwis bonding in a foreign country ever, quite honestly, there were 1,000's of us there all wearing our supporting black and Cardiff was inundated with kiwis and the frogs everywhere, Cardiff had an electric carnival atmosphere, the town was alive and every bar in town was bulging at the seams with rugby revellers in every corner. The beer flowed like water, the tongues were wagging, there was a real sense of party fun in the air, colours of black, blue and red everywhere......fun and frivolity and great excitement ahead...

The bus trip home was very sombre indeed, very few words were spoken, tears flowed, hugs galore, a very bleak and sobering atmosphere, the black garb seemed appropriate, everyone in mourning, and the grieving and the pain of a loss to the french was overwhelming.

Enjoy the photos, keep up the comments, we appreciate news from home, and hearing from you all, Noel and I cant believe its 5 months since we left you all behind.