Geoff & Chris in the UK    Letters & Photos: Previous  Next

Geoff Pooch & Chris Priestley
1 Loxley Square
Kineton Green Road
Olton B92 7EF
Birmingham, UK
Phone +44 (121) 706 7991
Mobile +44 (779) 180 5916
Email geoff@olympia.co.nz

8 March 2003

Hello all,

Spring continues to unveil itself, with daffodils and crocus flowers literally exploding from the ground on lawns and traffic islands. The tree outside our bedroom window is in full white blossom, and the sky is beautiful and clear (when it's not foggy or raining…). Still cold though, 8 degrees today!!!

We were thinking of you all during the yachting, vigorously waved our black "loyal" flag, but sadly to no avail…

Biggest news of the week is that on Friday we moved into our flat. It's a 1 bedroom 'penthouse' on the 2nd floor of a nearly new building in Olton. We're 2½ miles from Chris's work at the Solihull Primary Care Trust. The bus stop is just outside the door, and the railway station is ½ a mile up the road.

The flat really is luxurious, feels more like a 5 star hotel room - feather duvet and pillows, chrome and glass furniture, black leather sofas, and cupboards full of sparking new wine glasses, crockery, cutlery, pots and pans. In the lounge, there is a huge wide-screen TV, DVD player and a real flickering gas fire (bearskin rug not supplied). A wonderful array of four different remote controls on the coffee table. The operation of the intercom/video camera/door bell is a bit of a mystery, so any visitors had better let us know of your impending arrival! A very high tech flat - every room is wired for telephone and TV. And as a bonus, it costs £5 per month less than we had budgeted.

All we've had to do is go to the shop for some basic food stuffs, and we have an instant home!

Geoff has applied for a job at Warwick, a small town 15 miles South of Olton. It's for the county council, to project manage some of one many of their current IT projects. Warwick is most famous for it's Warwick Castle, now run by Tusauds (Madame Tusauds Wax Museums etc). A lovely little village, that is the local government head for the whole Warwickshire region.

Haven't found a car to buy yet, went out today but it was freezing cold and raining. We really like the look of the Ford Mondeo. Quite surprising how different the models of cars are here, compared to NZ. E.g. very few Toyota.

We're starting to make sense of, and cope with, the UK traffic. It's quite surprising how courteous the local drivers are. Eg if you are trying to turn into or out of a side road or driveway, the traffic will very soon stop to let you in. Most unlike NZ drivers! The give way rule is the opposite of NZ, so we've got to be careful when at intersections. Most of the roads, even through the city centre, and so narrow that you just cannot overtake. Bus stops are not 'off the road', so when the bus stops to pick someone up, all traffic stops behind the bus. But the buses get moving again very quickly, as they're well set up to get passengers in quickly (eg the bus ticket is printed about 8 feet further down the bus, on a 'help yourself' printer, so that passengers are not waiting for the driver to issue the ticket.

There are some delightful businesses locally - from the "Doggie Doos" pet grooming parlour, to the unambiguous "fags and mags" and bold "superdrug".

Some of our settling in has been frustrating, eg I tried to hire a video tonight - but couldn't as they require three forms of ID, including two with our address printed on it. Of course, we don't have anything like that yet. So instead we're watching Crufts dog show on TV and pigging out on ice cream! Opening our bank account was a similar hassle. Despite doing all the paperwork in NZ before we left, providing copies of our passports etc - we had to do it all again here in Solihull. We were told to go to London but Chris persuaded them that we could do the formalities closer to here. HSBC Auckland had spelt both our names wrong, which took even more time to fix - over an hour in the bank managers office before we could make a withdrawal!

All told, we're feeling settled and happy to be here. Missing friends and family back in NZ, but grateful for the wonders of email so that we can keep in touch.

Cheers, Geoff & Chris

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