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

UK News 10 August 2003

As predicted by many, as soon as I started work, we haven't had much time for writing the newsletter. Three weeks have gone by so quickly! 
Warning: This newsletter has lots of photos, so it may take about two minutes to completely appear.

Dad/George has been in hospital for two weeks, first with suspected pneumonia, and then with suspected lung cancer (a shadow on the x-ray). Possibly (hopefully) he has neither, that it is just another lung infection. He is coughing up brown fluid, but is too old and unwell to undergo diagnostics (eg fine needle biospy or bronchoscopy) so the doctors cannot give a clear answer and are in a dilemma. We just hope that a bout of long term antibiotics will see him bounce back yet again. The doctors are saying "wait and see", to have another x-ray after the infection has gone. He is today transferring into a rehabilitation ward to help assess what help he needs. He is not sure he needs any help but the rest of us are concerned and feel he needs some sort of home help coming to the house regularly as it does take a toll on the rest of the family so some help would be great. Hopefully he will be home soon.

Saturday night - it's been 35 degrees today and over thirty degrees each day this week. Chris has had four cold baths and I've just come out of a cold bath, having eaten an ice cream (in the bath!) - all desperate measures to cool down. It is just incredible that it is this hot - I thought the UK only had cold, wet, miserable weather. This is positively tropical!!!! Sunday morning & there is an almighty electrical storm rattling the windows.

Job wise, I started working for Shoosmiths solicitors on 22nd July - a really great bunch of people to work for. I am overwhelmed by the friendliness and support that I have received. My predecessor obviously was not very popular & everyone seems very happy that I am there. They paid a staggering amount of money to my recruitment agent & yet still are happy with me, so that's great. Started wearing a suit and tie, but it's been too hot this last week, so have been more casual (the dress code is quite relaxed).

The offices are brand spanking new, with lots of new computers, those lovely LCD thin screens, everyone has the best desk & chair, lovely Minolta 20 page per minute colour laser printer/copier, a A0 size scanner and printer (for copying building drawings in full colour). One toy they have given me to play with is a 'Blackberry' - a pocket sized email device that is GSM/GPRS  connected, so that even when I am on the train, I can send and receive emails. I'm impressed with how even the Chairman of the Board has an open plan office just the same size and design as everyone else. I have spent two days in Northampton for training, and go to Nottingham next week, as part of 'job rotation'. Already there has been some social life, with a staff night out to a restaurant called TigerTiger last week. Chris told me it was a lap/pole/table top dancing club, but of course it wasn't! The Xmas party this year is an Egyptian theme evening at Milton Keynes, with accommodation provided, and dodgem cars!. Sadly partners are not invited ( I will have to think of something else to do although its on a Tuesday night which is odd for a Xmas function)

The alarm goes off at 6:45, leave at 8:15, twelve minutes walk to the train, ten minute train ride, five minutes walk to work, start work at 9:00, an hours lunch, finish at 5:30, and home by 6:30.  A longer work day than I was used to in NZ, but better than for those who spend more than two or more hours per day commuting. Chris is now driving our car to her work, and sometimes picks me up from the station. She has to travel perhaps once a week to other NHS facilities, for meetings and training.

STAND BACK!!! Chris is about to do a "brain dump". (I am the brains behind this newsletter ! - the Brits don't say 'Brainstorm' and I think 'brain dump' sounds a bit more icky or something!) We took Michael, my nephew who is 8 years and sister Judy to the Air tattoo at Fairford air base next door to my brothers Raymond's home - the lovely Cotswold village of Kempsford. Judy was offered a ticket by a man who said his wife could not come as she stood in the queue - so saved her 32 pounds. We walked from Rays garden. It was mind blowingly loud as huge  fighters planes performed overhead, and a full display of male power, aggression and might. Lots of men in uniform - not half bad really!. Wonderful live historical displays with actors speaking in the way airmen spoke across the centuries. Geoff and Mike went inside a massive surveillance helicopter with a huge radar antenna underneath. There were police everywhere with machine guns, soldiers guarding every plane and everyone was checked and scanned for guns & bombs, hand luggage x rayed. On the way back we took the road signposted to the ' Rissingtons (upper and lower) and the 'Bassingtons lesser and upper'. We found ourselves in 'Bourton on the Water', most delightful village. See Pear cottage below.

We had a cheap Pub dinner there and then walked for a while. Found a fairy story cottage ' Well Cottage'  for rent - might go back at some point. The night before the airshow we had Raspberries & cream after a bbq dinner @ the colonels (Sally & Dennis). I had forgotten how wonderful these meals taste. However, we also had a massive navigation argument on the way there - a combination of not listening and and not explaining well enough - our first real fight for a long long time. I trouped off on  to walk back home on my own (about 10 -15 miles) - would have done too, but someone eventually gathered enough wherewithall to apologise. All better now. We also went through Stow on the Wold - and wondered what they were stowing, and what is a wold!.

The airshow was indeed incredible. This photo is the Italian airforce team, who put on a most impressive display of formation flying, including smoke in their country colours. When we first arrived, we had to go through the entry gates, at which our bags were put though an airport Xray machine, and then walked past police guards with sub-machine guns. We were incredibly lucky with tickets ($100 each) - Ray's wife Clair works for the company that organises the air show, and managed to find a couple of tickets for us. Judy's son Micheal was under 12 so he was free. So we all got in for nothing, wonderful luck!

The very first plane we saw was a dark green 757 doing very sharp takeoffs and turns. It wasn't until it had landed that we realised that it was NZ Air Force! I thought they didn't have any planes left, let alone any spare to be playing silly buggers on the other side of the planet. And we saw some helicopters flying UPSIDE DOWN - I was sure that this was an impossibility, but there they were! A little later, the supersonic jets started screeching overhead, with their after-burners glowing bright red. They were not allowed to break the sound barrier (shame), but they were quite amazing. 

Stars of the day were definitely the Italian airforce (shown above), with ten planes in very tight formation. Last plane we saw was the stealth bomber, looking more like a bat than a plane. Quite chilling seeing it. We can imagine how frightening they must be to village folk in the outbacks of Iraq.

We also spent a wonderful weekend on a canal barge, the good ship "Quality" (quite an affinity!) with Lynda & David Stiles and our nephew Michael. I have experienced the solitude of command - being alone at the back of boat, while everyone else is relaxing at the front (or sleeping on a bunk...). The beauty of the countryside, the humour of watching other 'sailors' struggling with the controls, watching the frantic efforts of one group in a 65 foot narrowboat who had become marooned on a mud bank, the foolishness of those 'driving' on the wrong side of the canal & not giving way. The hubbub of the galley crew making the 10th cup of tea for the day, the impressive crew discipline of withholding alcohol until after 5pm. I loved watching Michael who took a fancy to the barge mop with its bright red traditional swirley pattern on the handle and spent a lot of time 'swabbing the decks'!

We're feeling sad that we're not going to be in NZ for Geoff's Dad's 80th birthday party on 16th August. Aidan & Jevon & Rachael & Nicky are going in our place, and hopefully can say a few words on our behalf. Missing events like that does make us feel a little homesick, Chris is really missing the boys - especially our family life and the fun we have together. We are having to make do with monthly phone calls.

The madness of the British is as famous as ever...

I was amused to see that my spelling checker suggested "bathwater" when it didn't like Hamilton Mayor Braithwaite. Interesting!

Yesterday morning we woke to see a little face staring at us, from the tree opposite. I thought it was a possum, until I was told to not be silly - there are no possums in the UK. It was a squirrel, asleep with his two front paws looped over the branch and hanging on. A moment later it woke and ran down the tree so fast, like it's pants were on fire!

If you are interested, the digital camera I bought is the Olympus Camedia C-740. 10x optical zoom, 3.2 megapixel. Does short movies, though without sound.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/c740uz.html
The photos on this page have been edited down in quality, so that they can be viewed quickly. Here's an example of a high quality image from my camera, which is of the Birmingham Queen Victoria Plaza, with the Shoosmiths building in the background. 

And here's another photo from my camera, a weird & wonderful photo of the Queen Victoria statue and a huge poster advertising Italian beer in the background. I am so proud of this picture of Geoff's - isn't he clever? The same picture was on the front page of the news a week later but his must have been the original.

Lastly, a lovely photo of Rob & Dawns twins, now five months old, but still only 7 pounds each. They smile at us now - that's my finger going 'cootchy gooo'!1.


Phew - that's a long newsletter! Hope you enjoyed it. Please write soon!

Love, Geoff & Chris

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