Doug & Jodie

Yesterday after a stroll around the Portobello Road markets and Westbourne Grove, Doug and I moved on to Shepherd’s Bush and a small pub near a friends place to catch the first half of Aust vs England in the rugby world cup quarter final. At half time (Aust were up 10-6) we walked to Eric and Yumi’s place (Eric is American and Yumi, my friend from work, is Japanese/American) – they were hosting our very first thanksgiving dinner. With us were Laura (my friend from work) & Julien (both from France), Amanda (from work) & Ben (from Australia and having a baby in January), Frode (work mate) & Merritt (Norway) and Kevin (work mate) & Brook (Kevin is from Trinidad originally but has lived here for ages and owns a house with his ex-boyfriend – they still live together, makes for interesting stories). Saddened only by the constant text messages Doug received from his British work mates about the surprising defeat of Aust to England!!!, we stuffed ourselves with turkey, yams (cooked with marshmallow and sugar!), vegies, stuffing and more then finished with dessert – pumpkin pie and cream! It was a great afternoon with great friends. Then with the NZ vs. France game on Doug and Julien’s minds, Kevin suggested we catch the bus to his place to watch the match on his flat screen TV in his newly renovated house. So off we all went (minus Amanda & Ben) and watched another surprising game, France won, much to Julien’s excitement! We had drinks out in Kevin’s tropical garden oasis in the middle of London and then headed home on the bus, then tube then walk …. Always a big journey to get home.

Another crazy weekend in London – life is definitely never dull here. And besides standing behind an innocent man who was head butted by some crazy man on the tube on Friday – very scary – this was an ‘I love living in London weekend’. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow when I face the commuter frenzy on the tube for another week 

Darryl and I set off for Lyon on Friday night (8:30). this meant we missed the Tonga v South Africa game. We go the airport to find out that the plane was delayed by 2 hours. When we eventually got to Lyon around 1:00am. Let me just say that I don’t have much respect for BA and their customer service.

We woke up in Lyon, and proceeded though the metro system to Vieux de Lyon, where we took the Funicular up to Fourvière. The cathedral at the top was amazing. There was an old Astronomical clock/device in the church, which showed the time, date, lunar pattern and season, all completely mechanical. The view from outside the cathedral over the city was amazing. We went back down the funicular and took the other funicular up to the site of an old Roman site consisting of two ruined theatres dug into the hillside.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the old city, where we had lunch in one of the squares.

That afternoon, we travelled by train to St-Etienne. We started off in the Glasgow Pub in the Hotel de Ville area. The pub was absolutely packed with Scottish and Italian supporters. We saw the second half of the major upset, where Fiji beat Wales to knock them out of the competition and advance themselves into the quater finals.

Our game was very exciting. It started off with two passionate anthems and the support continued right though the match. Scottish pipers, shirtless Italians painted blue cheering and shouting. It was a great match to watch, with a missed penalty in the last few minute to deny Italy a quater files birth.

RESULT : SCO 18 – ITA 16

Jodie and I took off early Sunday morning from Gatwick, Glasgow bound. it was cheaper to fly both of us to Glasgow (return) and rent a car, than it was to fly one of us to Edinburgh.

We drove the 48 miles to Edinburgh, and proceeded to the base of Edinbuggh Castle. We did the tour of the castle, but missed out on the Crown Jewels, as there was a 20 minute wait. The view from the castle was amazing, the air was really clear over the city.

We ended up at the game early, as we were worried about the parking situation. We grabbed some dodgy stadium food, before taking our seat high in the stands behind the posts. We watched an entertaining game, although it was a pity that the Scots failed to score.

RESULT: NZ 40 – SCO 0

Recently Amanda, Laura and I spent 3 nights in Glasgow for the York Advanced Modelling Course. This was a highlight of my year (sad I know, but it was the big goal I had for our stay in the UK and will give me a big advantage in the Health Economic world)!
Us girls enjoyed a great night at The Ubiquitous Chip – a famous Scottish restaurant in Ashton Lane (also famous). Amanda and I went for a long walk one evening after the course through the botanic gardens. On the first night of the course we enjoyed dinner with the other course attendees within one of the halls of Glasgow university – dining on chicken stuffed with haggis!
The course itself was 60% what I knew and the rest quite challenging and therefore overall really beneficial. A big tick in the box

A few weeks ago my company took us away for a night in a beautiful country estate house north of London for a team building/strategy night. We spent two days discussing ways forward for the future, finances and objectives and also ate a lot and got particularly drunk at night… Got to know a lot more than you should about your colleagues but also enjoyed the time away and just going for walks with the girls (Yumi, Laura, Amanda).