Ssssoooo Cccccold....

Check out the forecast from the BBC website for London.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=0008

Tomorrow is going to be nasty. Light snow showers!?!?

London Eye and Tower of London

Hey guys,

Check out our photos from last weekend on our photo website (click on the picture on the left to go to the album). We went on the London Eye, checked out the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. The Tower of London was the first real castle we've seen since getting here. Matt really liked it and is keen to see more castles. The London Eye was cool and gave us a good view of the whole city. It was a really clear day which made the view even better. I also really liked Tower Bridge but I like bridges for some reason. The Anzac Bridge is still my favourite bridge though!

We're moving to Wimbledon!

We had confirmation today that we have been accepted as the new occupants of a bedroom and ensuite in a modern flat in Wimbledon!

It is about 15 minutes from the station but it is on a major-ish road so there are buses that frequently take you to the station from right outside. Wimbledon station is good because it is on the Tube network which is good for getting into the city, it is on the overland rail network which makes it easy for Matt to get to work in Epsom and it has a tramlink out to Ikea if we need anything for the flat when we move in :)

The flat looks out over leafy Wimbledon and is on the second floor (of a secure building) facing away from the busy road (and Wimbledon Tennis Centre). The area is quite safe and more upper class than other areas we looked in. Come the end of June it will be crazy with all the tennis going on but it will be fun. It is nicely furnished and cosy. We will be living with a South African couple who are our age and seem really nice.

We move in on Saturday 2nd February. We'll post pictures of it when we move in so you'll have to wait.

Can't wait!

Thea

Buckingham Palace

Hi

As promised, click here to go to some photos of our trip to see Liz last sunday. Also, below is a video I took on Thea's camera (mine doesn't take videos, and it's more than 3 times the price. go figure...) of the guards walking out of the palace.

Cheers
Matt

ps, do you like our new banner? It's of an underground tube station in London.

Happy Birthday G!

A big shout out to my brother.

Happy Birthday Grant!

Morning!!!

Morning everyone

Just a quick post to let you know what we've been up to the past little bit.

I (Matt) have just been doing my usual thing at work. The new project that I'll be working on hasn't started yet, and so we're just tidying things up from the last project and getting code etc ready for the next. Not heaps of fun, but the more we do now the easier the new project will be I guess...

Thea has been casual teaching at a few different schools, but is not really happy with it. It's not that the schools have been rough or anything, but it's a casual job and therefore comes with all the annoying things about a casual job. Like today Thea wasn't called until 8:10 to say that she was working. Usually they call by 7:30. It means that Thea has to get up and be ready early even if she may not be working. Sometimes they book in advance (Thea already knows she will be working tomorrow) but often it's last minute. Yesterday they canceled on Thea when she had already arrived at the school!

So Thea has been looking for other work a little more stable. One job she has already applied for is with Protocol Education, the same organisation that she is currently casual teaching for. They have a position for someone to work in the Wimbledon office, organising teachers and placing them in schools etc. It's a permanent position, which should make Thea's life a lot happier and stable.

In terms of accommodation, we have looked at a couple of places in the Wimbledon area. One place was a two bedroom, two bathroom flat about 15 minutes walk from the station. It was really nice, and we'd be sharing with a young South African couple. We were really happy with it, so hopefully if they were happy with us too we will move in on the 1st of Feb. Otherwise we keep on looking... Wimbledon is also good, as there are at least two decent churches in the area that we know of. Unfortunately Wimbledon has really expensive council tax (I think about £2000 a year) so that's a bummer.

Also, last Sunday we briefly went into London to say hi to Liz. She was quite rude and wouldn't let us in for tea. Buckingham Palace is not what I expected though. I thought it was a massive castle with huge grounds and towers etc. Its actually quite unimpressive. I'll post a couple of photos tonight to show you what I mean. We did manage to see the changing of the guards, which was kinda cool.

Well, I've finished my crunchy nut clusters, so I'm off to work.

Have a good sleep Australia
Matt

update:

I just arrived at work, and guess what? The sky's blue and the sun is out! I almost forgot what country I was in! Mind you, apparently it was about 2-3 degrees and my ears nearly fell off from the cold, so that pretty quickly reminded me where I was (at least there was no wind). I think it's cold now, but the locals keep saying to me "Just wait until February". Uh oh...

Duvel...

longneck...

from the supermarket...

£3.69...

yum.

The power of the tambourine....

Well I've officially started casual teaching work. My first assignment was on Thursday at a primary school in Chessington North which is geographically close to Epsom but the train line requires a slight detour. In true style I was late for my first day after missing the train which messed up the connecting train. I also wasn't told what time I had to be there so that didn't help. I was 20 minutes late which didn't make a good first impression but I smoothed it over with the deputy later. Sorted.

I started off looking after a low ability Year 6 maths class before moving on to a nightmare Year 4 class. Their regular teacher had been away for 3 days and I was their third different teacher in three days. They were off the planet. Three times a nearby teacher had to come into the room to tell them to be quiet because they could hear them down the hallway. That's how much they listened to me.

For most of the day I had a teacher's aide in the room with me to help with select students. My thanks go out to those teacher's aides. Not only were they helpful in trying to maintain some sort of routine for the students of which I was unaware but they also helped pull the students into line. The power of knowing what name to yell out helps.

Today's assignment was only for half a day and was a 15 minute walk from home. Epsom Primary School was a much nicer, bigger and well off school. It has a nice air about it, was neat and tidy and had a close knit community atmosphere. The school itself seemed to be quite new and so the resources were also quite new. The kids were again noisy but that is to be expected for a supply teacher. The only power I held over them was a simple tambourine. A few taps and the students were mesmorised. Instantly they stopped moving, stopped talking (well most of them), clapped the rhythm made on the tambourine and listened. It was awesome. From then on I carried that tambourine with me where ever I went.

I haven't got any work lined up for next week yet but anything could happen between now and 8:30 Monday morning.

Speak soon,

Thea.

Some more photos...

Hi All

Just a quick note to say that I can now get the photos off my camera. Here are a few more photos to supplement Thea's from the other day. Click the attached photo to open the rest of them.

Also, today's weather was a shocker.
Wind and rain: 1, umbrella: 0... :(

Cheers
Matt

It begins...

Hi All,

Well we're getting into the swing of things now. Matt starts at EMB today which is only a 5 minute walk from where we are staying. Tomorrow I have my interview in Wimbledon with the teaching agency to set up everything so then I can start working. We're settling in well and starting to get used to the surrounds, the weather and the time difference.

We are staying 10 minutes from the centre of Epsom, which is a relatively large town comparative to its neighbours. It is located south west of London and is a safe and quiet area. The overland train runs from Epsom to Waterloo and takes 40 minutes to get into the thick of London. Waterloo station is the origin of all the overland trains that run out to the South West. It is also on the Tube network which is very handy. The Tube is a very efficient system with one arriving roughly every 2 minutes.

Epsom has a quite large shopping centre called the Ashley Centre which is home to the department stores of the House of Fraser and Next, supermarkets such as Marks and Spencer's and Waitrose, banks and many other specialty shops. Epsom basically has everything you need. Sainsbury's, another supermarket chain is a short walk from our place which is very handy considering we don't have a car. We can see Sainsbury's from our place but it's far enough away to not be noisy.

The supermarkets here are amazing. It is essentially Big W meets Woolworths and Liquorland. They sell all the regular things you would find in an Aussie supermarket plus it has a pharmacy section, a newsagent section, an alcohol section. They also sell sheets and towels. You could even buy a TV and toaster from a supermarket!

As you may have guessed we didn't make it through Thursday without sleeping. We had a grand plan of not sleeping until night in the attempt to beat jet lag straight away. We failed miserably. We went for a short sleep at 2pm and woke up at 12 Midnight. Oops! We then tossed and turned until morning before getting out of bed at 4 or 5 am.

Friday marked our first adventure into London. We went into the city to meet up with Martin from Quantium UK for lunch. We ended up going to a relatively fancy Italian restaurant for which we were severely under dressed. Everyone dresses very well in London and we felt very awkward although the meal was lovely. I had a very nice risotto. After lunch we had a little look around London including a quick peek at Tower Bridge but we got too tired to enjoy it all so we went back home.

We spent Saturday in Epsom doing shopping and bits and pieces and we managed to stay awake until about 7:30pm / 8pm so we are slowly getting over the jet lag.

Yesterday we went into London to do the touristy bit. We caught the train into the city then the Tube to Westminster. We walked up the stairs to be greeted by Big Ben, the Thames River and the London Eye. Unfortunately the London Eye (that big ferris wheel looking thing) was closed for its annual maintenance so we'll have to wait until later this month to go on it. We also saw Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Piccadilly, Regent Street and Downing Street. Actually, we stumbled upon Downing Street. We happened to be walking down the street and came across this heavily fenced off street right in the middle of the Tourist area with policemen on guard with machine guns. After a brief moment of wondering what on earth it was we looked up to see the Downing Street signpost. We didn't manage to fit in Buckingham Palace, St Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London or Tower Bridge but we do have a year to see it all. Good old Liz will just have to wait.

We had a lovely day. All of my photos can be seen on the Picasa web album. You can see a slideshow of them at the top right of this page and if you click on it, you will be taken to our Picasa Web Album page. Matt's photos are stuck on his camera currently as he forgot to pack the cable that connects his camera to the computer. We will try and buy a cable soon so you can see his photos as well. He has some pictures of the outside of our place and the street we are living on as well as some more pictures (and some quite similar pictures) of our walk through London so keep your eyes peeled.

Well, I think I've written enough for one day. Don't forget to email us and let us know how you're going back in sunny Sydney or simply post a comment on this blog to let us know people are reading it and that we have an audience out there.

Hope to hear from you all soon,

Love Thea.

We've arrived!

Hi all,

Just a quick post to let you all know that we arrived safely in London. We had a quick stop over at Hong Kong on the way before landing at Heathrow at 5:08am this morning. We were then driven out to Epsom where we will be staying until the end of January. The place is a 3 bedroom townhouse which is small but warm and appears to be quite new. A very Ikea interior so it feels somewhat familiar.

The weather is typical. Its freezing to us but quite warm to the locals considering the time of year. It is currently about 10°C, quite windy and overcast. I'm really itchy from the dry weather. Its amazing how much of a chill factor there is. It feels as if we're at the base of a ski field - very fresh.

We've had a short sleep this morning but we are both pretty tired and queezy from the jet lag. We both feel like we've been hit by a bus - a big red one with two levels. We're going to try our best to stay awake the whole day in the attempt to get over it as soon as possible. It's currently 11:45am and we've been to the local supermarket already to get some food. Its a 5 minute walk from here which is handy with no car. We plan to head into Epsom shops after lunch to check it all out and deter us from sleeping. We'll see if we can make it through the day without sleeping...

Speak to you soon
Thea

The year of the earl grey...

As you probably already know, Thea and I are leaving for London on Wednesday, and will be returning for Christmas. It's all very exciting, but pretty daunting - I mean, we're moving to a whole new country for the entire year! Anyway, I've just got to trust God that he'll look after us and worry instead about serving him over there.

Most of the major things are sorted - our visas are organised; passports organised; accommodation for the first month is provided by work, but after that we have to find our own place; Thea has spoken with a recruitment agency that specializes in placing Aussie teachers in UK schools, so Thea just has to complete some forms before we go and get a Federal Police check and she's sorted too.

The main thing that's left to do is pack. I plan to do that tomorrow, which should give me enough time to wash anything that I need to take that isn't already clean.

It's going to be pretty tricky. Virgin Atlantic allows up to 23kg of luggage checked in, plus another 6kg for carry on luggage. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to take enough stuff for an entire year and get the net weight under 23kg, but I suppose that's the challenge.

Anyway, keep an eye on this site over the next year, as Thea and I will try and post weekly or so about what's been happening and what we've done etc.

We also have a Picasa web album that we'll put up our photos onto. The usual routine will be that I'll post a photo with my blog, and then that photo will link to the Picasa album that it's a part of.

Hope everything in Aus goes ok this year, and i'll catch you for Christmas 08.

Cheers
Matt