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We haven’t really posted that much about what we have been doing lately.  We seem to have posted more about what we haven’t been doing! So here is a little something. Not sure its that interesting though!

A few weeks ago we went to a club rugby game (actually it was the Saturday just before the snow arrived – you know the snowfall that shut London down for the day).  Any thought of posting anything non-snow related just didn’t seem right at the time.

Through Bec’s boss we got tickets to a club rugby game: Saints v Harlequins at Twickenham.  So the pair of us and a few of Bec’s work-mates met up for an afternoon out together.  It was played at the Harlequins’ rugby ground just around the corner from the big Twickenham ground, (so on that scale the ground was just a little one).  And because it was a bit smaller, it had a really great atmosphere. And it was packed!

The ground did sort of bring home how big a pastime rugby is in New Zealand compared to the UK though. These teams are in the premier league of UK rugby, and the stands are still only fairly teeny.  Not quite on the  Lancaster Park or Carrisbroke scale. And that’s before taking into account the small difference of a few 10s of millions of potential seat warmers between the countries!

It was also a little odd watching the game and not really having any idea who we wanted to win, as normally there’s at least some reason to lean towards supporting one team or the other, but not this time. We’ll have to assume the best team won on the day!

Weather? Freeeeeezing!  Bloody ffreeezzzing! (It did dump huge amounts of snow just after that, remember?!.  The Harlequins were the winners – that was apparently a bit of a no brainer to those in the know.  But it was a fun day out, with a few pints of Guinness to warm all the boys up…. but Bec says drinking Guinness (the only time she really ever drinks it is at a rugby game), is like having a meal – you don’t need that much before you are full!

Oh and did we mention it was bloody cold, even with jackets, gloves and hats and scarfs on?!?!

This time when the weather peoples said there was snow on the way, it actually arrived! And boy did it!  Walking around this morning it was about 6 inches deep all over the place. And more still forecast for the rest of the day. A good day to work at home, rather than face transport chaos.

It’s the wrong type of snow for “snowperson” making though, but we did give it a small go.  It’s all too light and fluffy. I sound like Transport for London now…

Great for walking around in though.  We might even have to go for another walk a bit later!

YAY! I like snow!

A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to continue following the tour we started in Edinburgh and got tickets to go to the NZ vs. England game at Twickenham (once again through Bec’s boss at work – thanks Tim).

We meet up with him just before the game, and as suspected our seats were in the “English supporters'” part of the ground.  So here we were again two little ole kiwi’s amongst a lot of English, and when we were scoring tries we had to be a bit more reserved than usual (well Bec has to contain herself).  The game was interesting, it took the AB’s awhile to get going, but then perhaps they were just waiting for the English to make mistakes – which seemed to work.

It was bloody cold in the 2nd half as the sun went down and it started to rain (how we forgot to take our hat and gloves, I’m not sure).  And of course we had a pint or two of Guinness whilst we were there. It seems to be a bit of regular thing when we go to Twickenham.

After the game as the crowds leaving were massive, and we thought it would be a fair while before we could get a train, we had a nice night walk down the Thames to Richmond, made all the more pleasant by stopping at a pub for a warming drink on the way.

It was another good day out. (And we won the rugby!)

Well, the horror of it all has just about receded into the past enough for me to think about writing something about the move we made a month or two ago. Just about!

As you’ll remember, the state of our landlords mortgage affairs led us to have to vacate the old flat so that we could feel like we could sleep peacefully without bailiffs knocking on the door in the middle of the night telling us to get out. Or worse, turning up during the day while we were out and taking all our stuff assuming that it was his… So we looked for a few flats around town, but in the end we decided to take one just across the road from where we were. This was partly because we’ve gotten to know this area now, but partly because I thought it would make it an easier shift. We wouldn’t have to make sure we had everything packed up at one time for a truck to come and take it all, and could take our time walking things across from one place to the other. (Bec says – But to be honest I think because we had so little to go the not packing properly makes it even harder when moving.  Who would’ve thought it would take so much time to walk just across a road to shift).

And that was pretty much the whole weekend. Walking loads of stuff from one apartment block to the other. Back and forward and back and forward and sit down for a minute and back and forward etc, etc, etc.

Whew! I feel tired again just thinking about it!

I started off keeping track of how many trips, boxes, etc that we’d brought over, but by about the fifth trip that had started to wear a bit thin, and we just put our heads down and did a few more. So I’ve really no idea how many trips and how much stuff we moved.

We did meet a couple of neighbours going up in the lift for another load on Sunday in the old flat that had obviously been watching us all weekend and were quite impressed/amused by the whole ordeal. Glad we could entertain someone!

The star of the whole ordeal was a little sack trolley we borrowed off a friend of Bec’s. We did also borrow another one from the concierge from the old place, and a furniture delivery guy that was briefly loitering outside the new place for a few loads here and there, but the one below was the constant companion. It must have looked a bit funny to casual observers. I’d be carrying over some awkward stuff, while Bec would be driving the cart over with a stack of boxes that was almost as high as she was! It was easier for both of us that way, honest!

Glad it’s all over though! Hopefully for a good long while! I still think it was easier to do it this way than pack it all up at once, but if we had to do it again I think I’d pay a couple of guys to come and do a lot of the walking to and fro for us while we tried to look busy packing stuff up ready for the next loads…

Some days you’re lucky, and some days you’re not.  Yesterday was one of those lucky days.  Actually, maybe it’s been about the only lucky day for a while, but I’ll take it.

Why was it lucky? Thanks to a guy at work’s girlfriend, he and I got a last minute invite to the Arsenal v Porto Champions League match.  Free tickets in a corporate box event!! With free food and drink chucked in for good measure!

Yippeeeeee!

Wasn’t going to turn that down! Even if it meant leaving Bec pining at home for the evening.  Sorry Bec!
Great game too. 4 nil to the Arsenal!

Let’s hope it’s the start of a lucky streak!

I lied.

Boo hoo hoo.

Sometime this morning some big booming noises started to echo across the dock…  Took us a while to work out what was going on. There was a big dragon-boat event going on.

Quite impressive to watch, but seems like all too much hard work on a lovely sunny day…

Immediate panic over.  All the advice we’ve had confirms that we’ve got at least 3 weeks minimum until the time that bailiffs could turn up at the door. Whew!

And in even better news, we think we’ve found a flat to move into. In another block of apartments just across the road, so moving should be reasonably easy. It’ll be the second time in London we’ve moved just down the road we’ve been living on. We still got a man and a van for that move as there were lots of stairs involved then and it was a bit further away, but this time we might either do it ourselves or just get some guys without the van, but with some trolleys.

So assuming our reference checks all come back fine (and there’s no reason they shouldn’t that we know of, unless we catch something nasty from the landlord’s issues)  we can stop worrying about finding somewhere and just worry about packing.

Did I mention that I hate moving?

As of last night we live in uncertain times. It appears our landlord has been lying to us and this flat is due to be repossessed by his bank. In a week.

AAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

We did know that there were issues, but he’d told the property management company that they were all sorted out, and he was paying the mortgage again. The lying *#&#^#£&* $£#&#$ #$#%#£&$££$!!!

What that really means for us we’re not quite sure yet. Worst case is we’ve got a week to move, or face not being able to get into the flat one day next week. But I’m pretty sure it’s not quite that bad. Still pretty bad, but not that bad. I think best case we will get another 28 days from next week, which at least will give us time to find somewhere to live!

Looking on the (very small) bright side, one impact of his lying to us that things were all sorted out might be that we didn’t end up being in exactly the same situation in an identical flat one flight up. When we heard he had issues, we thought of moving, and there was a flat just upstairs that would have made moving easy. But we believed him and didn’t (purely to avoid the hassle of moving). And now the property management company tell us that that landlord now appears to be going into liquidation too. Looks like the falling house market here is claiming quite a few victims.

Unfortunately some of them are us, and other tenants around the place.

What has struck me about this whole saga is how little rights tenants have, and how little information they/we are entitled to. It’s perfectly possible that the first thing a tenant would know about any of this is when the eviction notice arrives. Doesn’t seem very fair to me, but there you go.
More information on the situation as it comes to hand…

Sigh.

I really, really hate moving!

It always feels a bit naughty to be out late on a school night, but we got Radiohead tickets to their Tuesday night gig here so we weren’t just going to sit at home!

A lovely (almost) summer evening for it. Not too hot, not too cold, and of course it stays slightly light until about 10:15. That last bit’s not quite so good for an outdoor light show, but makes finding people you’re standing with a lot easier when you’re on your way back from the toilets or bar…

The report card? A really good gig. They have obviously been playing together for a long time (like we didn’t know that!). Really, really tight. Sound was excellent for an outdoor concert too. Good stage and light show. Just what you’d expect really. Quite a few people seemed to wish that they’d played more of their old stuff, but I can imagine they’re pretty bored of playing most of those and have moved on. Fair enough. And they played for just over 2 hours, so can’t complain there.

Crowd-wise it was a pretty comfortable gig too. Only got pushed once, otherwise it was all nicely calm and civilised. Might have something to do with the fact that the average age seemed to be a lot older than what you’d expect for a teeny bopper band. Again, no real surprise there!

I’d go again.