I spent last week in Ireland doing an 8 day tour of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland with Shamrocker Tours. Getting to Gatwick airport for my flight Gatwick - Dublin was a real mission! With all the crazy weather and floods that England had on the day that I left (Friday 20 July) meant that connecting trains and flights were all massively delayed but I won't get started on that!
The Shamrocker Tour started off in Dublin and headed towards Killarney. Stopped off to see the Rock of Cashel, Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney Stone!
Killarney - Dingle: explored the Dingle peninsula home of Fungi the dolphin, seeing stone walls, ruined famine cottages, beehive huts and took a boat out to Blasket Island to experience the scenery.
Dingle - Galway: we visited the Cliffs of Moher, saw loads of Limestone rocks and saw some traditional Irish dancing in Galway city.
Galway - Inis Mor: spent the day and night on Inis Mor (the largest of the Aran Islands). Biked around most of the island, climbed up to the fortress of Dun Aengus a 3000 year old ring fort perched on the edge of a 300 foot cliff. You could walk to the edge of the cliff and look over, check out my photos when I get them uploaded - me at the edge of a cliff looking over, a little freaky but amazing!
Inis Mor - Kilcar: this was a big driving day through Connemara through County Sligo to County Donegal, staying the night on a country farm.
Kilcar - Derry: we visited the Donegal cliffs - as we were leaving the cliffs our bus was stopped by a radio researcher and asked if a few of us would speak to him to give our opinions on the scenery. Our tour group was made up of heaps of Australians, a few Americans, a few Canadians, a German girl and me the only Kiwi. So of course I was roped into representing NZ!! I basically told him that the cliffs and the scenery was nice but I didn't think that they were anything 'spectacular' .... I guess I wasn't as impressed by the scenery as some of the others in the group as we are lucky enough to have amazing places in NZ. It really makes you appreciate how beautiful NZ is! After Donegal cliffs we crossed the border from Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland and into Derry City. We did a walking tour of Derry city to learn about Bloody Sunday and the troubled past of Ireland, checking out political murals around the streets.
Derry - Belfast: we visited Dunluce Castle, Giant's Causeway and got to cross Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge Indiana Jones style.
Belfast - Dublin: we took a black cab tour of Belfast city learning more about the history and troubles, visited a ruined monastery and finished up back in Dublin.
A GRAND week away, definitely learnt more about the history of Ireland and it's troubled past, ate enough potatoes/chips to last me for a year and drunk my first whole pint of Guinness!!
Fan-Feckin-Tastic!
Photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/Ireland?authkey=4CP1a4NeCNA
Monday, July 30, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Change of Plans
Last week I was feeling really restless and was unsure if the living and working in London scene was really me so I've cancelled my job search, packing up and going travelling!!
From next weekend I go to Ireland for 8 days, come back to London for a few days to pack up my flat and then head to Europe for 3 weeks!
The change of plans was a little unexpected but very exciting - not really sure what I'm going to do with myself for the next week and a half ... luckily Geoff and Vince are around for another few days before heading home. I might try and use next week to see a bit more of London (on a tight budget now that I'm not looking for work anymore and have paid for my tours without having any more income between now and then!)
Will keep you posted ...
From next weekend I go to Ireland for 8 days, come back to London for a few days to pack up my flat and then head to Europe for 3 weeks!
The change of plans was a little unexpected but very exciting - not really sure what I'm going to do with myself for the next week and a half ... luckily Geoff and Vince are around for another few days before heading home. I might try and use next week to see a bit more of London (on a tight budget now that I'm not looking for work anymore and have paid for my tours without having any more income between now and then!)
Will keep you posted ...
Monday, June 25, 2007
London
Well I've been over here for two months now and have been very slack with updating my blog sorry!!
My contract with Bain finished up a week ago so have spent the last week in Scotland which was awesome, now back in London going through the interview process etc to sort myself out with more work.
I moved into a flat during the weekend, it was soooo good to unpack my suitcase and have my own bed!
The last two months over here has seen me celebrate my birthday, another year older! It was celebrated in style on the Friday night with Flavia and her workmates, drinking Moet out of plastic cups on the Millenium Bridge by St Paul's overlooking London after the bells rung midnight!! The Saturday night I spent out in Clapham with friends, great music, great night.
I can say that I've been up to Brick Lane and had a curry, went to a bar called the Big Chill (for those familiar with the Raumati local, it's nothing like that, just the name!) Saw Les Mis the other week which I really enjoyed but there are still heaps more shows I'd like to see. Went to Taste of London yesterday which was good, unfortunately the weather was horrible so we spent the day walking around Regents Park in the rain!
Will try and update a bit more regularly from now on, and keep you all posted on the job front.
Miss you all. xo
My contract with Bain finished up a week ago so have spent the last week in Scotland which was awesome, now back in London going through the interview process etc to sort myself out with more work.
I moved into a flat during the weekend, it was soooo good to unpack my suitcase and have my own bed!
The last two months over here has seen me celebrate my birthday, another year older! It was celebrated in style on the Friday night with Flavia and her workmates, drinking Moet out of plastic cups on the Millenium Bridge by St Paul's overlooking London after the bells rung midnight!! The Saturday night I spent out in Clapham with friends, great music, great night.
I can say that I've been up to Brick Lane and had a curry, went to a bar called the Big Chill (for those familiar with the Raumati local, it's nothing like that, just the name!) Saw Les Mis the other week which I really enjoyed but there are still heaps more shows I'd like to see. Went to Taste of London yesterday which was good, unfortunately the weather was horrible so we spent the day walking around Regents Park in the rain!
Will try and update a bit more regularly from now on, and keep you all posted on the job front.
Miss you all. xo
Scotland
I spent last week in Scotland, I got the train to Edinburgh and met up with Dave, Vince and Geoff. My contract with Bain finished up the week before so it was a nicely timed break from work and getting out of London for a change.
Scotland was awesome but with minimal darkness hours at night took a bit to get used to - With the sun going down around 10.30-11.00pm and coming up again at 4.00am, you can get heaps done with so many daylight hours but for people like me who enjoy their sleep it stuffs you up a bit!
Saturday night we spent in Glasgow with Dave's cousin Fiona and her boyfriend Keith, checked out the Glasgow nightlife, it was strange going into a bar at 10.30pm and it was still light outside and coming out again around 3.30am and the sun is coming up!
The boys had hired a rental car for their time in Scotland so it was a good way to travel around, they had already been in Scotland for a week before I arrived so they got to see more than I did but while I was there we managed to see St Andrews, St Andrews Castle, checked out the best Fish and Chip shop in Scotland in Anstruther, Edinburgh city, Edinburgh Castle, Dave and I climbed Scott Monument in Edinburgh for a great view of the city, Kirriemuir (birthplace of J M Barrie known as the creator of Peter Pan) and stayed for the majority of the week in For Far with Dave's Aunt and Uncle - Marion and Joe.
We drove back to London, stopping for a night in Liverpool. Big thanks to Dave who did all the driving (while I slept most of the way as I do on most trips!)
Scotland was well worth it and I'd like to get back there soon to see more! (Mark R - unfortunately I didn't get to try a Scotish deep fried Mars bar :( and we didn't quite get round to trying Haggis either - maybe next time ...)
Photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/Scotland?authkey=eZigYmYEh1s
Scotland was awesome but with minimal darkness hours at night took a bit to get used to - With the sun going down around 10.30-11.00pm and coming up again at 4.00am, you can get heaps done with so many daylight hours but for people like me who enjoy their sleep it stuffs you up a bit!
Saturday night we spent in Glasgow with Dave's cousin Fiona and her boyfriend Keith, checked out the Glasgow nightlife, it was strange going into a bar at 10.30pm and it was still light outside and coming out again around 3.30am and the sun is coming up!
The boys had hired a rental car for their time in Scotland so it was a good way to travel around, they had already been in Scotland for a week before I arrived so they got to see more than I did but while I was there we managed to see St Andrews, St Andrews Castle, checked out the best Fish and Chip shop in Scotland in Anstruther, Edinburgh city, Edinburgh Castle, Dave and I climbed Scott Monument in Edinburgh for a great view of the city, Kirriemuir (birthplace of J M Barrie known as the creator of Peter Pan) and stayed for the majority of the week in For Far with Dave's Aunt and Uncle - Marion and Joe.
We drove back to London, stopping for a night in Liverpool. Big thanks to Dave who did all the driving (while I slept most of the way as I do on most trips!)
Scotland was well worth it and I'd like to get back there soon to see more! (Mark R - unfortunately I didn't get to try a Scotish deep fried Mars bar :( and we didn't quite get round to trying Haggis either - maybe next time ...)
Photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/Scotland?authkey=eZigYmYEh1s
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Barcelona
I spent last weekend in Barcelona, Spain with my cousin Kat and her friends Harsa and Lyril. It was a bank holiday weekend so we got three days away.
We had a really early flight from London Stansted on Saturday morning flying Easyjet and arrived in Barcelona with a full day ahead of us.
We took the train from the airport to our accommodation which was a very eventful trip! We missed our train stop due to our lack of understanding of Spanish and Lyril had her wallet stolen by a pick pocket! We were all warned about pick pockets in Spain but you never think that it will happen to you, luckily we got Lyril's wallet back after some quick thinking by Harsa - that was Harsa's superhero deed for the weekend!
Kat had rented us an apartment for the weekend - fantastic location! We were one block away from one of Barcelona's top tourist atrractions: Sagrada Familia!!
We bought a two day pass for a Barcelona bus tour of the city, it was a great way to see the city as it let us get on and off the bus wherever and whenever we liked to see the sights we wanted to.
Some of the highlights of Barcelona attractions:
Sagrada Familia - (known as Gaudi's dream) this is a work in progress. As it was only partially completed when Gaudi died in 1926 it has had years of added contribution by sculptors and architects with an estimated completion date of 2030!! (not sure when they actually complete work on it though - we didn't see any contruction work been undertaken while we were there during the day and never saw anyone working at night either). This was well worth the visit, it was amazing and is nothing like I've ever seen before. The view from the top was fantastic and the narrow stairs coming down were interesting ...
La Pedrera - an amazing apartment block with its crazy roof, known as one of the most emblematic of Gaudi's work. It also has a museum dedicated to Gaudi's architecture. Recommendation to anyone visiting Barcelona - go here first to learn background info on Gaudi's work. I think this would have been useful for us if we'd been here first before visiting other places.
Park Guell - Gaudi's architecture in garden form. The gingerbread houses and lizard were pretty cool.
Barcelona Cathedral - gothic cathedral which was an interesting experience, even a little freaky ...
La Rambla - of course we had to take a walk down this long street. Had lunch there on Sunday and saw an interesting range of people, not all of them clothed ...
We had set aside a bit of time for 'shopping' seeing as we were a group of girls! Were a bit disappointed with the shops though, I guess Madrid is the place to go for shopping?
We had a full day in Barcelona on Monday before returning to London, we arrived back in London about 11.30pm Monday night and when all we wanted to do was to get home to bed we had to wait in the line at Immigration for AGES! Everyone else in London had gone away for the bank weekend too and it felt like we all arrived back at the same time. Finally got home just after 2am Tuesday and the thought of getting up for work in a few hours wasn't the best (can I remind everyone that I'm NOT a morning person!) Let's just say that I wasn't entirely with it at work on Tuesday but it was a good weekend. Even with the dramas we had with Lyril's wallet, navigating our way around with our very limited knowledge of Spanish, and issues we had with using Spanish locks (there were numerous occasions when we couldn't get back into our apartment because we couldn't get our key to work on the locks, there must be some knack to it that only Spanish people can use?)
I can now say that I've experienced Barcelona, which had good and bad paella, good and bad tapas, good and bad sangria. By the end of the weekend we were even getting used to Spanish eating times (lunch approx 2pm - 4pm and dinner from about 9pm - midnight). The weather was nice other than a few random down pours, temperature was in the 20's and I even got jandal tan lines!
Photos http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/Barcelona02?authkey=6DpQv_r2DE0
We had a really early flight from London Stansted on Saturday morning flying Easyjet and arrived in Barcelona with a full day ahead of us.
We took the train from the airport to our accommodation which was a very eventful trip! We missed our train stop due to our lack of understanding of Spanish and Lyril had her wallet stolen by a pick pocket! We were all warned about pick pockets in Spain but you never think that it will happen to you, luckily we got Lyril's wallet back after some quick thinking by Harsa - that was Harsa's superhero deed for the weekend!
Kat had rented us an apartment for the weekend - fantastic location! We were one block away from one of Barcelona's top tourist atrractions: Sagrada Familia!!
We bought a two day pass for a Barcelona bus tour of the city, it was a great way to see the city as it let us get on and off the bus wherever and whenever we liked to see the sights we wanted to.
Some of the highlights of Barcelona attractions:
Sagrada Familia - (known as Gaudi's dream) this is a work in progress. As it was only partially completed when Gaudi died in 1926 it has had years of added contribution by sculptors and architects with an estimated completion date of 2030!! (not sure when they actually complete work on it though - we didn't see any contruction work been undertaken while we were there during the day and never saw anyone working at night either). This was well worth the visit, it was amazing and is nothing like I've ever seen before. The view from the top was fantastic and the narrow stairs coming down were interesting ...
La Pedrera - an amazing apartment block with its crazy roof, known as one of the most emblematic of Gaudi's work. It also has a museum dedicated to Gaudi's architecture. Recommendation to anyone visiting Barcelona - go here first to learn background info on Gaudi's work. I think this would have been useful for us if we'd been here first before visiting other places.
Park Guell - Gaudi's architecture in garden form. The gingerbread houses and lizard were pretty cool.
Barcelona Cathedral - gothic cathedral which was an interesting experience, even a little freaky ...
La Rambla - of course we had to take a walk down this long street. Had lunch there on Sunday and saw an interesting range of people, not all of them clothed ...
We had set aside a bit of time for 'shopping' seeing as we were a group of girls! Were a bit disappointed with the shops though, I guess Madrid is the place to go for shopping?
We had a full day in Barcelona on Monday before returning to London, we arrived back in London about 11.30pm Monday night and when all we wanted to do was to get home to bed we had to wait in the line at Immigration for AGES! Everyone else in London had gone away for the bank weekend too and it felt like we all arrived back at the same time. Finally got home just after 2am Tuesday and the thought of getting up for work in a few hours wasn't the best (can I remind everyone that I'm NOT a morning person!) Let's just say that I wasn't entirely with it at work on Tuesday but it was a good weekend. Even with the dramas we had with Lyril's wallet, navigating our way around with our very limited knowledge of Spanish, and issues we had with using Spanish locks (there were numerous occasions when we couldn't get back into our apartment because we couldn't get our key to work on the locks, there must be some knack to it that only Spanish people can use?)
I can now say that I've experienced Barcelona, which had good and bad paella, good and bad tapas, good and bad sangria. By the end of the weekend we were even getting used to Spanish eating times (lunch approx 2pm - 4pm and dinner from about 9pm - midnight). The weather was nice other than a few random down pours, temperature was in the 20's and I even got jandal tan lines!
Photos http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/Barcelona02?authkey=6DpQv_r2DE0
Saturday, April 28, 2007
London cont, job update
My latest news is that I've accepted a four week contract with Bain and Company, a global management consulting firm. I start on Monday 30 April working from their London office in their HR section providing support to their professional development and training and development functions. It will be nice to start earning some £'s and it all contributes to my travels!
Off to Barcelona next weekend with Katrina and her friends, really looking forward to my first taste of Europe.
A few photos from London so far ...
http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/London?authkey=yk-6GEonsTU
Off to Barcelona next weekend with Katrina and her friends, really looking forward to my first taste of Europe.
A few photos from London so far ...
http://picasaweb.google.com/njshew/London?authkey=yk-6GEonsTU
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
London
I arrived in London on Friday 20 April flying British Airways from Hong Kong to Heathrow. The flight wasn't too bad, I was seated next to a mother with two young children, probably aged around 4 and 2. I was dreading that they were going to yell, scream and cry the whole way to London but luckily for me after about an hour into the flight their mother managed to get them to sleep and as a result I also managed to sleep a bit too.
Arriving Heathrow very early morning I managed to get through Immigration and Customs without a worry, surprisingly quickly actually! I had prepared myself for long delays and strict procedures with the bottled liquid policies but I was through the arrival gates in no time :)
I was lucky enough to be picked up from Heathrow by Emm and Nathan and headed back to Emm's in Battersea (Clapham). Emm left for work so I pretty much had the day to myself to settle in and get my bearings. I was feelling a little sleepy that morning but was determined not to sleep. Advice from many people was so stay up as long as you can and try to align yourself with local time - by lunch time this was a struggle, especially for me being someone who likes to sleep (I'm sure Katie knows the feeling!!) but thankfully Emm was onto it and was calling me every hour to check up on me and make sure I wasn't napping! To get myself out and about to avoid the temptation of sleeping I headed into the city, taking my first overland and underground rides to Oxford Circus all by myself! Headed down Regent Street, made a quick visit to HSBC and Top Shop as well as a few shops along the way and then came home. Very proud of myself, didn't get lost!
So far I've been to visit my cousin Katrina in West Hampstead and Geoff and Adam in Tooting Broadway so getting a feel for what the London area is like.
I've registered with a few recruitment agencies in London and have met with them over the past few days. There are a few jobs that they have presented me with and at the moment I'm just taking some time to have a look at different jobs and assess what the market is like. Will keep you all updated with my progress.
Not too much planned for the rest of this week, unless there are jobs that I'm interested in going for and any interviews that may arise out of them. Looking forward to Friday when Dave and Vince arrive in London and hanging out with the boys.
Arriving Heathrow very early morning I managed to get through Immigration and Customs without a worry, surprisingly quickly actually! I had prepared myself for long delays and strict procedures with the bottled liquid policies but I was through the arrival gates in no time :)
I was lucky enough to be picked up from Heathrow by Emm and Nathan and headed back to Emm's in Battersea (Clapham). Emm left for work so I pretty much had the day to myself to settle in and get my bearings. I was feelling a little sleepy that morning but was determined not to sleep. Advice from many people was so stay up as long as you can and try to align yourself with local time - by lunch time this was a struggle, especially for me being someone who likes to sleep (I'm sure Katie knows the feeling!!) but thankfully Emm was onto it and was calling me every hour to check up on me and make sure I wasn't napping! To get myself out and about to avoid the temptation of sleeping I headed into the city, taking my first overland and underground rides to Oxford Circus all by myself! Headed down Regent Street, made a quick visit to HSBC and Top Shop as well as a few shops along the way and then came home. Very proud of myself, didn't get lost!
So far I've been to visit my cousin Katrina in West Hampstead and Geoff and Adam in Tooting Broadway so getting a feel for what the London area is like.
I've registered with a few recruitment agencies in London and have met with them over the past few days. There are a few jobs that they have presented me with and at the moment I'm just taking some time to have a look at different jobs and assess what the market is like. Will keep you all updated with my progress.
Not too much planned for the rest of this week, unless there are jobs that I'm interested in going for and any interviews that may arise out of them. Looking forward to Friday when Dave and Vince arrive in London and hanging out with the boys.
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