Great escapes, shopping and a movie

We went to the Imperial War Museum yesterday (Saturday) which was cool. Lots of tanks and planes on the ground floor which were heaven for all the boys and men there (and there weren't that many girlies there!), but we spent our time in a special exhibition - Great Escapes. It was really interesting - about POWs escaping from different prisons, but focused mainly on the famous ones - Colditz and Stalag Luft III (the Wooden Horse escape and the tunnel - made famous by the movie The Great Escape). Quite fascinating to read how POWs saw it as their duty to try and escape, and how the Germans expected them to. And also how as they had signed the Geneva Convention they weren't meant to punish them too horrendously (which didn't work for the tunnel escape where 50 of the 76 men who escaped were shot by the SS on the orders of Hitler).

I learnt from Kevin that after the war when his dad was a lawyer down in London one of his clients was Oliver Philpott - one of the three men to escape through the wooden horse! I thought that was pretty cool. And also that New Zealanders were involved in the tunnel attempt - two men escaped through the tunnel but were caught and shot by the SS and a third was captured at the mouth of the tunnel and survived. I think two of them were flying in the RAF. Both websites I've linked to above have good information on the escape attempts, along with the names of the survivors and victims if you're interested...

Then we went and did a bit of shopping and then went to watch Jarhead - just to keep the war theme going. Thought it was very very good. Has been criticised apparently for not focusing too much on the futility of war, but I thought it conveyed that pretty well. And the details about the soldiers lives in Iraq were interesting as well - a Wall of Shame where photos of wives and girlfriends who had cheated on them or dumped them were put up... Definitely a film I'd recommend.

Memoirs of a Geisha + Walk The Line

Went to see Memoirs of a Geisha last night - quite good, but a bit too long. Could have easily cut 20 mins out of it without weakening the story.

But it was great to see Gong Li in a film again - I love all her older Chinese films like 'Raise the Red Lantern', 'Farewell My Concubine' etc.

But my hot film tip of the moment is Walk The Line - go and see this. It is really great. Superb acting (they should both get Oscars for their performances) and the music is fab too.

Dentists and doctors

Well poor old Kevin had a very uncomfortable weekend last weekend suffering from toothache - really badly... Not having a dentist down in London there wasn't much he could do except quaff painkillers until he could get to one on Monday. But what I thought was interesting was that on Sunday I thought we could go to an emergency doctor to get some painkillers - nothing is ever that easy over here tho!

Rang my doctor's surgery which had a recorded number for emergencies. So rang that number and said what I wanted. The guy on the end of the phone told me to a) Go and ask my neighbours who their dentist was and ring them, b) Call NHS Direct to get names of dentists in my area (which I'd already done over the internet) c) Gave me a 'Dentist Line' number to call. So I rang them and they said they were having an emergency surgery in Slough, and could we get there. Well even if I could drive Slough is in no way handy to Surbs. So we went to Boots and Kevin just kept quaffing those pills...

My memory of things like that in NZ tho is that there is always an emergency doctor on duty? Or has that changed? Anyhow, Kevin went to the dentist on Monday who gave him some more pills and told him to come back in a couple of weeks! So still no real resolution...

Hicksville and a whale

Just finished a really good graphic novel by Dylan Horrocks - check out his website at Hicksville. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it so much because of the NZ elements to it, or because it was about comics generally, but I would really recommend it. Definitely something I will go back to and re-read.

The whole of London has been buzzing about the whale swimming up the Thames as well. As suspected though it did not have a happy ending. We tried to see it yesterday from the top floor of our office (we've just moved back to Waterloo and overlook Westminster) but there were too many buildings in the way. It will be interesting now to see if people start to blame organisations etc for not trying to rescue it yesterday...

More band emails...

Am currently listening to and greatly enjoying the Breaks Co-op cd at the moment - a fab xmas pressie from my sister after I raved about Fat Freddy's Drop last year.

But the label has copy-protected it... :-( Means that I can't put it on my Ipod - very very frustrating.

So I thought I'd email them and tell them that! Will be interesting to see how they respond! But I did also see on their website that they will be touring over here later this year so that is something else to look forward to!

Comedy and a cold

We went to see Lee Mack on Friday night - I hadn't heard of him before we went but he was very very funny. Language was fairly strong at times, but still good. Great audience participation - I was pleased that we were sat in the back row of the stalls so well out of any areas where I could be spotted or picked on!

Since then I've been sat at home feeling very sorry for myself with a raging head cold. I was supposed to be walking on Saturday but I just couldn't have done it. Took all my energy to lug myself around to Kevin's place. So I'm plowing through the tissues and waiting to feel more like a human being again!

Feeling happy

Got back to my flat to a Christmas card from an old friend (it took a long time to get from NZ to these shores...). And it had a letter in it which was lovely :-). It happens so rarely that I get post so it is an extra special treat when I get 'real mail'!! Of course perhaps if I wrote more letters I might get more... Then I had a belated happy new year text from another old friend, rang my Mum and had a lovely long chat to her, checked my email and had two emails from two other old friends. (I use 'old' here purely in the sense that we have known each other for a long time, not in relation to our age!).

So all is good and lovely with me this evening.

And I have 9x68p stamps for the christmas cards I never sent to NZ so watch those letter boxes - you just never know what might land in them one day!!

Cold snap and plumbing work - not a good mix...

Well we are in the midst of another cold snap (apparently it is freezing out today, although I haven't ventured out yet...) and Kevin is having lots of plumbing work done (new radiators installed, new boiler, radiators getting flushed through, shower installed). Which means no heating... not great timing! It was supposed to be done by Thursday, then we got back to the house on Friday and the plumbers were still here saying that there were problems getting the boiler going so it would be Monday before the work was done. So a quick jaunt was undertaken back to my flat to get my heater so we could survive over the weekend! We could have just gone back to mine, but Kev's got a much better sofa and tv - not to mention the dvd player - just what you need for a cold weekend! So with my heater in the lounge and a newly purchased fan heater being moved between the bedroom and the bathroom we are getting by. But roll on Monday (hopefully) when normal service will be resumed!! Still - at least Villa beat Hull and are through to the next round of the FA Cup so the weekend hasn't been all bad :-).

Happy New Year!

Little bit late but here is a 'happy new year' entry... We had a very quiet New Year's but it was good. Kevin cooked a delish lamb roast from the Moro cookbook and we had a lovely bottle of NZ wine from our mixed crate we bought from the NZ House of Wine. All very civilised and lovely!

On New Year's Day we went to see King Kong which I thought was just fab. Really really enjoyed it, although the scene with the creepy crawlies had me squirming for a long time afterwards - those big wetas were just a bit too realistic for me! And I cried at the end... Can't beat a sad ending...

No snow

While the rest of the UK seems to be drowning under blankets of snow, sadly it has not hit Surbiton... Once we had got back to London I was quite happy for it to snow down here but it seems to have missed us :-(. And now it is raining so that will be it until the next cold snap. Sigh - I do love it when it snows!

Happy Christmas!

Hi all,

Well I hope you had a good christmas. As I type Kevin and I have just returned from our christmas up in Wem. Winter has hit the UK now and there is lots of snow around. Not in our area yet and luckily we didn't hit any snow on the way back down. We went up to Wem on Friday morning - very early, so we were up there by 10. Then on Christmas day it was off over to Telford to spend the day with Kevin's sister and family. Haven't spent christmas day with a four year old for a few years now - had forgotten how noisy they get! Then on Boxing day it was back to Wem as Kevin's aunt and uncle were coming over. Then on Boxing day evening Kevin got ill... No one can work out if it was food poisoning (both his mum and sister strenuously deny it was them!) or too much rich food but he was not a well boy. While Kevin's mum, dad and me sat and watched a frothy version of 'Under the Greenwood Tree' poor old Kevin was in the bathroom feeling very unwell.

So we had an extra day in Wem while he recovered but are now both very happy to be back in Surbs. Hoping for some snow, planning to hit the sales and go and watch King Kong - happy holidays indeed!

And a somewhat formulaic response from the band...

Hi MeganThanks for dropping us a line. We do appreciate the effort you made to attend the gig and take note of your concerns. Take care.Cher!
Freddy

The UK and a smoking ban

So the Labour Government over here is struggling with trying to bring in a smoking ban for pubs etc (a la NZ and Ireland). It was going to be an all out ban, but they wimped out so now we are in a stupid situation where if a pub is serving food it has to be non-smoking, but if a pub doesn't serve food it can be smoking.

So everyone is leaping up and down saying it is going to be unworkable (which it probably will be), and that all the bar staff in the pubs that don't serve food will be unfairly affected by even more smoke than usual... People on the radio were talking about rest homes - in theory they are public spaces, but they are also people's homes - there are just so many glitches that everyone but the Government seem able to see.

If NZ and Ireland can bring in these bans, it is crazy that the UK won't. It needs to be either or... Watch this space!

Fat Freddy's - what a disappointment...

Well I was so excited to be off to see Fat Freddy's again, this time with Kevin in tow, his mate and NZ girlfriend.

Except that they didn't come on stage until 10.50 - which when you live in London is pretty unheard of for a gig, unless they actually advertise it as a DJ set. So even tho it was in Hammersmith (which is the same side of the river as us), we had to leave by 11.45 to make sure we could at least get a tube to Richmond, and if we were lucky (which we were) get buses from there back to Surbs. Either that or be looking at at least 35 quid for a taxi... Wasn't impressed at all. Added to the fact they had some crap guy lip synching to country music on for half an hour from 10-10.30 and he was unbearable. Except to all the really drunk NZers there who had been in the venue since 7pm when the doors opened...

When they finally came on the performance was pretty lacklustre as well. I suspect they were hungover from winning some BBC award the previous night. But I think in future I'll take my chances and buy a ticket to see them on the day - I paid almost 17 quid for just under an hour of music. Not impressed.

Have emailed them as well via their website so it will be interesting to see what (if any) response I get. Mhairi also emailed them - she didn't even bother going - living in North London and going to West London to see a band that isn't scheduled to start until 10.30 (but they were late) is just a non-starter on a week night unless you fancy spending hours and hours on night buses getting home.

Rob Lowe and a sneeze...

We went to see A Few Good Men last night which was really really good. Featuring aforementioned Rob Lowe and Suranne Jones (ex Corrie actress for those who watch Corrie...). At one point in the play Rob Lowe was standing right at the front of the stage, and the whole theatre was quite. Except for me about 5 rows back from the front trying to stifle my sneezes! So I think I can safely say that Rob Lowe has heard me sneeze!! :-)

Nursery rhyme reminiscences...

I got talking to a friend at work today about nursery rhymes (don't ask how - I'm not even sure how we got on to it!) and she sent me a link to The Tale of Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash - check it out here.

I used to love this rhyme when I was young (er). I can't remember what book it was in, but I think it may have been in a big yellow book I had of nursery rhymes and stories that one of my brothers (either Bruce or Jonathan - can't remember now) gave me and it had lots of cool ones like that in it. And re-reading it now, it is just great - the dragon eats the pirate! And Ink and Blink gyrate around him cos he ate the pirate! It is just brilliant - can't imagine many rhymes for children being written now where a dragon eats the baddie - that would probably be considered completely un-pc...

So I've now bookmarked the poem and will keep reading it when I need something to cheer me up - I think it is just cool :-)

And back to 'Kiwis come home'...

I've started to read the North & South's I bought at Kiwifruits, and have read the article about New Zealanders returning home after their OE's.

I thought it was quite interesting, but again just seemed full of very typical stereotypes of London - and also the age group they seemed to be writing about. Too many descriptions of London's 'grimy streets' (they aren't all grimy) and the UK's drinking culture (which yes we do have, but I don't see as being much worse than that in NZ - just different in that in the UK more people drink in pubs). In fact from memory one person commented that the culture in NZ seems to be around families and sports more while in the UK it is more around alcohol which I thought was a bit rich. Perhaps that reflected more accurately her age group rather than the whole of the British pysche... Then there was the woman who had spent 20 years here and didn't see anything wrong with NZers only hanging out with other NZers over here 'because where else could they do that?'. Well NZ springs to mind... mind you she was also praising the existence of The Church and recommending that people make a visit to it. Anyone who has seen or lives near The Church and has seen the volumes of paralytic Antipodeans exiting from it on a Sunday afternoon would have to query the wisdom of that statement. There's not much pride in being a NZer when you are barred from pubs around it because of the behaviour of your fellow countrypeople...

It would have been interesting (I guess cos it is more relevant to me) to have had interviews with slightly older NZers who are still in the UK or who have just gone back. Most NZers go back around the time they hit 30ish, but it is the ones who stay (like me and most of my NZ friends here) that are more interesting I would have thought...

Still it is obviously a burning topic at the mo as I read an article on Stuff about it recently as well. Still haven't seen any of those ads on the tube yet tho...

Megan the brave

So on Friday night I went to my first gig by myself! Very proud of myself I was. I went to see Hard-Fi at The Astoria.

I had bought the tickets ages ago for me and Kevin but then he was offered tickets for another gig he wanted to (a Canadian band, Stars) and as Hard-Fi are UK and play loads he figured he could see them another time. So I wasn't going to go, but was then listening to them a bit on the ipod and really enjoying it, so after a bit of encouragement from Mhairi (who has been to a couple of gigs by herself) I decided to go. I sold the second ticket through a very cool website, Scarlet Mist, which has been set up so people can buy and sell tickets at face value, and not have to go to a tout and pay exorbitant prices.

And the gig was really good. Once I had got in and found a spot I realised that the whole venue wouldn't be talking about me standing there by myself and I relaxed a bit. Not sure I'd like to do it loads, but now I've done it once...

The heart of New Zealand...

in the heart of London. Had to go to Covent Garden at lunchtime and ended up very close to Kiwifruits, the NZ shop...

Always fatal :-). Still I kept my spend to under £20 which was not bad for me! Two issues of North & South, a big bag of Twisties (I don't think I'll ever grow out of them!), two chocolate fish, two buzz bars and a can of Watties Creamed Corn - can't get it over here and it just makes toasted sandwiches the best!

They are on to such a money spinner there but I just can't not spend when I go!

Trailwalker 2006 - NZ style!

Finally got around to checking out the Trailwalker site for the inaugural NZ Trailwalker - set around Taupo no less! Check out the website here.

I would so love to do this one - I sat at work and went into a daydream about the Shields family putting a team in, with me doing my training over here and then coming back to do the walk. But then reality kicked in and I realised that the training as a team is so important that it wouldn't really work.

But I can't encourage you all enough to give it a go! It was one the best things I have ever done, and I am still so tempted by the NZ one... How cool to do it in the UK and the following year do NZ - and around Taupo as well! Sigh.

If you are around Taupo when it finishes make sure you clap and cheer people who are finishing - you have no idea how wonderful that was for us when we were finishing...

I'd love to hear if any of you take up the challenge - Taupo in April tho... Was a bit suprised by that - the UK one is in the middle of summer - and we got less time to do it in! We had 100km in 30 hours, NZ is 36. Have I raved enough?? Check out Nola's Strollers again if you need reminding!