Chapter Six: Guildford

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April 22nd

The great weather in the London area continued (it really happened), so we all walked into the town of Guildford for the day. On the way into town, the iconic cathedral from The Omen (one of my favourite films) was visible on a hill overlooking Guildford. It would have been pretty far for us to walk, so we didn’t, but it was pretty awesome to see it.

Guildford itself is a beautiful town. It was pretty close to what I expected from a small, old, English town: cobblestone streets, old and slightly unsteady looking buildings, a castle, and pokey little alleyways.

Guildford Castle

Guildford Castle 

 

Guildford Alleyway

Guildford Alleyway

After a spot of lunch, Toni and I were left to our own devices in the middle of Guildford, so we tried a little shopping. Unfortunately, our first attempt was marred by some pretty terrible customer service, which included an insinuation that I (along with all men) are inherently perverts, but we soldiered on and managed to come away with a few bits and pieces.

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Chapter Five: Down With The Sickness

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April 21st

Our main task for the day was to shift locations from Toni’s uncle and aunt’s place to Toni’s sister’s. Before that though, Toni’s grandparents were wonderful and took us out for lunch. We all had a lovely time, but it was around this time that Toni’s illness had found its way out of her system and into mine, so I wasn’t feeling so great.

Having been pretty well looked after by Toni’s uncle, aunt, cousins, and grandparents, we packed up and moved out to Toni’s sister’s place in Guildford, about half an hour away. Being that we were both a little tired because of having or fighting off colds, we didn’t really do a lot for the rest of the day. We watched some junk TV, had some dinner, hung out a little, then set up the bed and crashed. It’s funny just how comfortable a foam mattress on the floor is when you’re wrecked.

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Chapter Four: Stores and Oars

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April 20th

The next morning, we were coerced from having simple cereal for breakfast to an English breakfast. Neither of us were really bothered either way, but it was more satisfying than we anticipated. This was shortly followed by spotting my first ever squirrel in the back yard. It may sound really lame, but I was kind of entranced with watching this squirrel run along the back fence. Shut up, I’m a grown-ass man.

Because we had gone to bed at about 8pm the night before, and slept through until 8 or 9 the next morning, we had next to no jetlag at all. It’s a good thing our flight landed in the afternoon in London, otherwise it would have been a lot worse.

Feeling satisfied, both with breakfast and squirrel spotting, we headed out to the local Tesco. I’d heard many great things about this store, and I wasn’t disappointed. The ground floor had a full grocery supermarket, a pharmacy, as well as a whole bunch of other things. The second floor had all sorts of electronics, clothes and again, a bunch of other things. Plus, the place was massive. We’d only really gone for a power adaptor for our NZ-plug-having chargers and shower stuff, but somehow also came out with snacks and candy.

While we were busy with English breakfasts and light shopping, Toni’s cousin was at her Saturday morning rowing training. We went to see her after our shopping trip just as she was nearing the end of the training session, but we still managed to walk along the section of the Thames they were rowing on and see them cruise by. We had luckily arrived in London at the beginning of what would be a heat wave, so it was also a particularly stunning day.

Our energy ran out a bit in the afternoon, so when we went home again, we didn’t really do a lot after that. I cooked dinner, we watched Britain’s Got Talent, then crashed.

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Chapter Three: Hello London

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April 19th

After getting through a surprisingly short customs and security visit in London Heathrow’s Terminal 4, we were met with open arms by Toni’s grandfather and sister. After travelling for so long, it felt fantastic to be welcomed so warmly. We rather slowly made our way into the car, bags and all, and headed off to Toni’s grandparents’ place. Within 5 minutes of leaving the airport car park, I had seen two very British things: a rather large roundabout, and a classic Mini Cooper with a Union Jack painted on the roof.

As an aside, I don’t understand how anyone is comfortable with driving in England. The roads are frighteningly narrow and there are often cars parked in questionable positions.

After a great light dinner and, of course, cups of tea, we then made our way to Toni’s aunt and uncle’s place, where we would be spending the night. We did our very best to socialise, but really only made it to about 8pm or so. Our bed for the night was thankfully very comfortable, but to be honest, after 26 hours of travel and 2 long-haul flights, we would have taken just about anything that was soft and flat.

There was a little bit of a damper put on things though: Toni had picked up a cold somewhere around  the time of our flights, and was doing her best to fight it off through the second flight and once we got into England. I didn’t experience it myself, but I can definitely tell you this: flying long-haul with a cold sucks.

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Chapter Two: How ’bout You?

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I am now officially the furthest I have ever been from New Zealand. It’s still a little surreal. I’ve been to Australia a bunch of times over the years, but that doesn’t really count. I’m writing this in England, while Toni’s watching Britain’s Got Talent with her cousin.

Our first flight from Melbourne to Guangzhou should have been a lot worse than it was. Having not flown with China Southern Airlines, we didn’t really know what to expect. First of all, despite booking our tickets together under the same booking, they had somehow managed to not sit us together on one of our flights to London. Luckily, we were able to fix that upon check-in. Second, there was almost no in-flight entertainment. The plane we were on had the drop-down screens down the centre of the plane all showing the same movie for everyone. We were seated on the side of the plane, which made watching the screens a little awkward. For a 9 and a half hour flight, it was certainly less than ideal. We were planning on, and successful at, sleeping most of this flight, so it wasn’t too bad.

The flight attendant we got every time they came around with the trolleys was entertaining. His opening line was always a rather refined “how ’bout you?”

Getting off the plane in Guangzhou was like walking into a sauna. It was 6:30am in China when we landed, but it was also 24 degrees Celsius, with (probably) huge humidity. Breathing was almost difficult. Because we were transferring flights, China Southern put us in a special departure lounge, complete with free food and drink. I spent most of the time taking cans of Coke from the fridge and using the cans themselves to cool myself off. The airport had what looked like a hefty air conditioning system, with vents right above where we were sitting in the lounge, but it definitely was not turned on.

The second flight from Guangzhou to London was a bit of a contrast to the first. It was longer by about 3 hours, but we were presented with individual seat-back entertainment units. I lost count of the number of movies I watched during the flight. The food throughout our China Southern experience was, well, airline food, but it was passable. It was pretty novel to have an eight-stage guided exercise video at the end of each flight too.

That’s pretty much the gist of my first long-haul flight experience. It wasn’t as bad as some people had lead me to believe, but I was definitely sick of being on a plane by the end of it.

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Chapter One: The Missing Bag

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I’ve learned two things from moving all our possessions to Melbourne on a one-way flight. First, leave more days between your last day of work and your departing flight. It’s a hard enough task, and not leaving any downtime in the middle was probably not the best idea. Second, don’t take a bike on a plane unless you really, really need to. Dismantling it and putting it in a box is a nightmare.

Anyway, here’s how the first part of our adventure panned out.

Our flight was to depart Christchurch at 6:05am, which meant we needed to be up at 4am to get ready and take our 6 checked bags (as well as 4 carry-on pieces) to the airport. After the formalities were taken care of we sat down for a much-needed but slightly rushed coffee, before going through security. In addition to having the SmartGate automated passport checking machine not recognise her face, Toni was lucky enough to score a spot check for explosives in her carry-on.

It was a little weird to be sitting on a plane and realise that everything we own was on that plane with us. We had a pretty decent flight. It might not seem like an early morning kind of film, but I watched the movie Hitchcock. I thought it was pretty great.

There was something a little off when we went to grab our bags in Melbourne airport. It turned out that 1 of our 6 checked bag did not actually make it to Melbourne. In fact, it hadn’t even made it onto the plane. The baggage service people at the airport were pretty helpful, and managed to get it onto a plane to Melbourne later that day. It was couriered to us the next day, so really, it could have been a lot worse. Especially considering most of our clean clothes were in that bag.

Since then, we’ve been staying with some of Toni’s family. They’ve been very helpful with educating us on getting ourselves set up in Australia, as they made a similar move a few years ago. We’re pretty close to getting all the grown-up things done, like tax registration and bank accounts, but most of it will have to wait until after we return from Europe. We’re leaving tonight, at about 10:30pm Melbourne time. Expect more soon, as the adventure properly begins tonight. 26 hours of travel, here we come!

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A European Odyssey: A Prologue

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By now, my lady and I have left New Zealand. About 6 hours ago, our plane left Christchurch, bound for the city of Melbourne, Australia. As many already know, we’re going to be there for the next 3 years, while she completes her PhD in Geology. Before beginning, however, we are on our way to Europe for 2 months.

We’re on our way there in 4 days.

I’m planning to posting updates as we go (when possible) here, under the newly created category, 2013: A European Odyssey. We’ll be keeping tabs and taking photos like nobody’s business. The frequency of posts will largely depend on when we can get a reliable internet connection.

See you again soon.

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Land Of The Long White Ultrastar

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As I’ve mentioned before, my partner and I are leaving New Zealand for Melbourne this week. This post is a little more specific in its intended audience, and serves double purpose as my farewell and thank you message to the New Zealand Ultimate community.

I first picked up Ultimate in 2007 in Nelson, through the help of Q Gately and Mike Packer. At the time, I was in my last year of high school and had been playing soccer for 12 years. Somewhere along the way, I had lost interest in playing soccer. I was no longer feeling the enjoyment for it that I once did. It wasn’t very rewarding. It was thanks to a chance message sent to our high school from another local school that I, along with a few of my friends, said “hey, why not?”

Although learning a new sport was, at first, a little tough, I kept at it. I instantly fell in love with the sport. Like a number of people I have since introduced to the sport, I was wondering where this wonderful game had been all my life.

In 2008, I moved to Christchurch to attend university. I had heard there was a local club before arriving, and thanks to a rather enthusiastic recruitment effort, I found them pretty easily. What I also found, somewhat unexpectedly, was a great community. Thanks to Ultimate, I made friends with people that I will probably remain friends with for the rest of my life. The rest, as they say when speaking in cliches, is history.

Since my humble beginnings, I’ve played in a number of beach tournaments, a few other social tournaments, one Uni Games, and a bunch of competitive tournaments all over the country (with increasing levels of quality). I represented New Zealand in Australia one time in the first Under 23 Open team. I’m pretty proud of the player and the person that Ultimate has turned me into.

I’ve met a lot of people at tournaments, leagues, and parties. It’s one of my favourite things about Ultimate; that you can be brutally competitive against someone during the day, and best friends with them at the party that night. If you and I have ever spun a yarn together, either at a party or on the sideline, you’re the kind of person I’m going to miss. The New Zealand Ultimate community is one that I am extremely proud to be a part of. Look me up if you’re in Melbourne sometime.

I look forward to seeing you again on a sideline in the future.

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I Made A Tumblr

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I came to a realisation recently. I had recently subscribed to receive updates from a number of websites, which were all Tumblr websites. Those sites essentially acted as infection vectors to me discovering what Tumblr can be used for. Thus, I now have a Tumblr page.

I’ve got plans for what I’ll use it for, but won’t be putting them into effect until I get to Melbourne and get set up there. Here’s what I’m thinking though: I’ll use Twitter for the more quick-fire updates and communication, Tumblr for the slightly-bigger-than-Twitter-but-still-kinda-inane posts, and this blog for the more personal or longer things I want to say. It’s all kind of an experiment for me. I’m not sure what I intend to get out of it, but it’s something I wanted to play with and try out.

I’ve also updated my contact page and sidebar (you should be able to see it now) to include snazzy little icons for each of the internet places you can find me.

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Brace Yourself, Change Is Coming

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This post feels really overdue to me. You’ll soon see why, but it’s about something I’ve had to keep under wraps for months. I’m pretty excited to talk about this, so without further ado, here we go.

First and foremost, my lady and I will be leaving New Zealand in a little over 2 weeks to move to Melbourne, Australia. She’s a clever sausage, and has been offered a PhD project at the University of Melbourne, only after getting first-class honour on her Master’s. She’s got a scholarship and free fees and everything. This is probably simplifying it to an offensive level, but she’ll be looking at bacteria within a salt lake, which is apparently analogous for life on Mars.

In addition to this, we’ve chosen to take a two-month holiday through Europe before actually settling into living in Melbourne. We’ve got some friends and family we’re going to visit in a number of countries, as well as an equal or greater number of cities we really want to see. We’re both super excited about the trip. I’m especially excited, as it will be the furthest from home I have ever been.

In terms of dates:

  • Leave Christchurch for Melbourne on April 14th
  • Hang around Melbourne checking things for a few days
  • Fly to London via China on the 18th
  • Gallivant around Europe for a couple of months
  • Fly back to Melbourne via China on the 13th of June

This whole thing has been in varying stages of approval and certainty for months now and it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that we were finally able to officially say “We’re outta here!” and book flights etc. Letting this particular cat out of its bag was a really satisfying thing to do.

As a slightly selfish final note, I’m looking for work in Melbourne to start in mid-June. If you have any leads for me to chase, get in touch. I’m big on computers, and have done tech support and software testing since graduating in 2011. More details are available on my LinkedIn profile.

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