Bank holiday weekend

Just a quick update on what we've been up to. Saturday morning we did our usual and visited Borough Market, did our fruit and vege shopping, had a yummy brekkie and ran into a guy I went to St Pats with called Nick Fitsemanu. He's playing rugby professionally over here for the Ghwent Dragons and obviously really enjoying it. So it was kind of cool to just bump into him on the street. In the afternoon we watch the Wallabies play Wales and a bit of England getting thumped by South Africa, before we went to a play (matinee).

It was titled, "Called to Account," and is based on a series of real interviews with British MPs, journalists and US officials, people such and Clare Short, Richard Perle etc, from January 2007 and put on as a play as a mock-trial of Tony Blair - being charged with the crime of aggression against another country. It probably sounds boring to most of you but we really enjoyed it. Afterwards we met up with some other friends and went and had Thai for dinner, which is actually not very common in London and something we hadn't had for ages. It was a nice end to a really great day.

Sunday, the shitty, cold, wet weather continued (week before last it was 26*, on the weekend it was 8*!!!). But despite that I headed to Twickenham for the day to watch the IRB 7's tournament. Despite the rain, we were under cover and had a really good time. I had the chance to talk to a few of the Canadian guys when they were walking around the ground, so that was great. Best of all, NZ played some of the best 7's they've played in the past 3 years and stormed to victory with comprehensive wins over South Africa, Samoa and Fiji.

Monday was a Bank/public holiday here and I did a 5km run at Battersea Park. Its a really nice park to run in, and I did 5km in 23 minutes, which was faster than I had expected. Fiona came and supported me, and I was pretty happy with the run. And that was pretty much the weekend.

I am suppose to be doing a 10km run this Sunday at Greenwich Park and hopefully I will. But I've actually just come down with a bit of a cold. But hopefully it won't effect me too much and I'll be able to run. I haven't run 10kms before, so it'll be a good test - especially since there are a few hills in the run and I'm not really use to running up hills - despite being a Wellingtonian! ;-)

Looking forward to another weekend of great sport this weekend, Eng v Brazil in football; the All Blacks v France, Maori v Eng B and hopefully the Scotland 7's too. Two weeks today we'll be looking at Hamlet's castle in Copenhagen - can't wait!

"Don't cry for me Argentina..."

Hello!

Hope you all had a great weekend and that the weather was better wherever you are than it was in London. The weather here has been pretty crap recently. We had a really nice spell a week or two ago when it was hot and sunny...but its been pretty cold, grey and rainy in the last week or two - just like winter.

Anyway, Fiona and I had a fantastic time on Friday night. After a drink after work with friends the two of us went out for dinner and then to Evita, at the west end. It was a great show, with loads of Argentine Tango, other dancing and great music. Elena Roger was a superb Eva Peron, and her version of "Don't cry for me Argentina," was amazing. Che was also brilliant, barely off stage, singing in a large amount of the songs and also a real star of the show.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. I watch three games of rugby on Saturday (the best of which, I'm disappointed to say, was the English Premiership final). Although the Blues played well in parts, they faded badly and we beaten by a better Sharks team. The Crusaders were awful, and beaten by a team that only knows how to win ugly. Effective, but a stain on rugby - much to the disappointment of Bulls fans I'm sure.

The rest of the weekend was watching a bit more footie and doing the REALLY exiting tasks like housework. Work is still going well, Fiona is meeting up with her Aunt today for a coffee etc, and life keeps going as normal.

Fascinating political events back home with the leadership poll turning up a new top dog after 8 years, and David Bain's conviction being quashed. Was good to see the Blair saga finally come to and end which his announcement that he is to resign next month, with Gordon Brown taking over. Makes for a very interesting year next year.

Less than a month until we leave for Scandinavia - can't wait! :-)

"I'm...forever blow...ing bubbles..."

Hey everyone!

After a few technical problems, I've finally got my blog back up an running again. Has been a busy few weeks for Fi and I, but I'll try to keep it brief.

We had a fantastic holiday in the Netherlands, as I think I mentioned in an email. Walking around the canals in the sunny weather was fantastic. The highlights were definately doing a canal cruise in the early evening and having a glass of wine; the Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank House; and visiting the permanent MC Escher exhibition in the Hague. Since then, we caught up with our friend Erin who came down from Dublin to celebrate her birthday in London amongst friends (a very nice night in Putney!) and I went up to Oxford for a short visit with my uncle and his family, which was really great (wish I could do that more). Whilst there I played 9 holes of golf and didn't totally disgrace myself, scoring two pars, three bogies and a couple we won't talk about. But it was a great course and hopefully I'll get a re-match in the summer. For those that know him, I went to Nick O'Reilly's 30th at a bar in Westminster, which was a good night out.

Last weekend, Fiona went to Paris. I was suppose to go to Nantes with the lads for a few days, but unfortunately because I changed jobs recently I couldn't get away. But instead, I had a superb weekend, going to my first Premiership Football game this year: West Ham v Bolton. As luck would have it, it was a great game - 3 goals in the first half hour to the home team and an eventual win 3-1 to the Hammers. Was a great atmosphere, the Irons fans were in great voice. Wasn't too impressed when they sang "we were the first team to win at the Emirates," but I wasn't about to complain. I also played a softball tournament on Sunday, which was good fun.

Anyway, that's about it for now. The spring rain is very much here at the moment; dull grey and windy this week, but hot and sunny 26* less than two weeks ago - that's London! Work is going well, the Aussies and kiwi and everyone else I work with at Hackney are really nice people.

Fiona and I are going to Evita on Friday night and we are both really looking forward to that. Plenty of rugby, football and sevens to watch the next few weeks and I am also doing a 5km and a 10km run at the end of the month. Counting down the weeks until Scandinavia!