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

12 April 2003

We have finally seen a TV programme on New Zealand - shame the subject was about the bad weather encountered on Mount Cook! But it was nice to see some scenes of NZ and to hear some local accents. And there was a photo of NZ in the paper - well of a giant squid being examined in Wellington. Imagine eating squid rings from that one then!

Rob & Dawns twins are doing well, finally starting to put on weight. After birth, premature babies lose weight as their digestive systems are not developed, nor for that matter their lungs or much else. They will be in hospital for quite a few weeks more, before they can come home. But they are both over the danger period, thank heavens.

Saturday Night was a great night out - Chris's niece Christina (named after Chris) had her engagement party at a local football club rooms. Over 200 people there. I've come to realise that young Brits are a happy lot, fun loving, always having a laugh, not as hung up about appearance and social graces as Kiwis. So they can get on with having a fun evening, singing and dancing, though most smoking as well. It really saddens me, seeing young ones smoke - especially as we are seeing the horrid effects of smoking in Chris's Dad's ill health.

Sunday we wandered into the centre of Birmingham, Chris's first time to the rejuvenated canal area, since she left here many years ago. What a transformation - it is looking really lovely. Wandered about the Birmingham art gallery for a while, and then repaired to the Victorian tearooms to listen to some music, drank tea and scoffed a jam donut.

War has a way of flavouring (tainting?) the language, and our perceptions of what we hear. I just heard the words "a massive hit" on the radio, so stopped to listen to the latest war announcement, only to hear that it was "a massive hit for Andrew Lloyd Webber" !!!

Chris's sheep are doing well, I'm sure they're moving around on their own - every time I see them they've moved! She has named them William and Mary, after a lovely new TV programme that has just started here. It has Martin Clunes and Julie Graham in the awkward early stages of a relationship. He is an undertaker, but not at all like the ones in "6 feet under". His role is much more relaxed and enjoyable than I have ever seen him before - he is usually too frantic and wacky for my likes. But this programme is good, I hope that you get to see it in NZ soon.

Monday today, another chilly morning but with glorious sunlight. Farmers are reporting that the spring is so early, that asparagus is sprouting 3 weeks early. Spent the day going to car parts shops, to get parts for the car: headlight bulb, air filter, spark plugs and new plastic covers for the wheels. The car seems to be guzzling gas, which is costing us a fortune! After that bit of attention, it seems to be better now.

Tuesday and another fine spring morning here - frost on the ground but not a cloud in the sky. The wind is blowing over from Scandinavia or somewhere else that's freezing!

Geez Chris is like a big kid - she waved at the train driver this morning, when we were crossing the bridge, and she got all excited when the train driver waved back! Except it wasn't some old burly Yorkshire stoker with a coal covered knee length beard, it was a young woman train driver!

Just watching the BBC news - they were showing an 83 year old hermit who has been living on a traffic island at Wolverhampton for the last 35 years! His beard was down to his knees, in four long ringlets. In NZ he would have been moved off long ago, but here they got the army in to provide a new tent! Some of the motivations for action are odd, eg a letter to the council complaining about squatters dumping syringes next to a school wasn't resolved by arresting the squatters - rather it was to give the complainer a phone number to ring & someone would come around and pick up the syringes! In the UK squatters have incredible legal rights, even more rights than the 'rightful' owner of the property!

Weather forecast for tonight = -2 and tomorrow = 6. Brrrrr…

Wednesday - and what wonderful news that the war is starting to come to a conclusion. There's concern in Birmingham over the Saddan Hussain mosque that was built here two years ago, with £2,000,000 of his donated money. I suspect that it will very quickly be renamed, to reduce the risk of vandalism. We drove past it the other day, and thought it a grim reminder of the dictator.

Perhaps as a sign of world peace, I've noticed the way that birds sing here even after dusk. What a lovely thing!

Took the car in for an oil change and filter. What was nice is that I asked them to quote for fixing the radio (it is 'code locked' due to the battery being disconnected). Another branch of the same firm quoted £20 ($55) but these people said they'd do it for free! So I can now listen to the dulcet tones of the BBC while stuck in traffic.

Thursday, Drove Chris to a meeting at Heartlands hospital this morning, and a slight dusting of snow coming down onto the car and the road.

Noticed some more clever church signs: · Looking old, tried, unattractive - give yourself a faith lift! · Feeling sluggish - come in for a service!

Thought that I might have found a few days work - the secretarial temporary agency that I have registered with, asked me if I would like to work at Nivea for 3 days. I said yes, but the client chose someone else - Shame. I have also applied to do some part-time teaching work at Solihull College, eg night classes in computer programming, as I taught at Waikato Polytechnic (sorry E&M - WINTEC it is now called!). Also, I might start offering my training and expert software skills to local businesses, on an hourly basis.

There are several positions for "Data Analyst" that I am applying for, within the health service. These jobs would suit me well, as they would use my skills of mining data out of other computer systems, analysing and producing graphs etc, and presenting the information to others via websites. Last week I applied for one at Heartlands, and today I will apply for one of two at Birmingham Childrens' Hospital.

Friday, Chris's Dad's birthday today. We had planned to have some of Chris's workmates for drinks tonight, but this has been postponed. That's good - mean that we can see George today after all.

My turn to be confused by the dishwasher today, a warning light came on, and it took me a while to work out that it had run out of salt. Yes - dishwashers here have a salt tank in them that you fill with salt, so that the water is softened.

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