4 weeks and we still in Brighton :)

Hi everyone!

How are you all? Just to let everyone know that Pac and I are settling in to life in Brighton. We have got a great place, 2 min walk to the beach. Its great being by the beach again. Brighton is a wicked city, so much to do and see. Last weekend there was the chinese festival and this weekend was the science festival.

We have got a rabbit, and for those who dont know his name is Stu... not Stew!! Pac has promised not to eat it or drizzle it in olive oil and spices!! He is a very cute mini lop crossed 

with a lion head. He is only 8 weeks old and finds its very amusing to try and eat everything that is on the ground. Including computer cables!

Pac is loving work. He is a biology teacher is a small town called Crawley, about 25 min drive away. He has quite a range of kids from all round the world, includ

ing those who cant speak english. So his job is proving to be very challenging.

I finally have wicked news........ I finally have been accepted as a registered nurse in the UK! Oh my god only took 6 months!!! Haha im not bitter at all! :)

My job that I have at the moment is looking after a young 10 year old with Cerebral Palsy part time. i just got back from Switzerland from being on holiday with them for 8 days. Switzerland is an incredible part of the world, so beautiful. It was a really hard work looking after Jack, but I cant complain I got to ski in the swiss alps, eat lots of cheese and make snow men... and get paid for it!

Hope everyone is well. Keep the emails coming

Miss you heaps

Love kristyn, stu and pac xxxx

Brighton

So, after two days traveling we have arrived in Brighton, its light coming home!

Its been a super time! We left Edinburgh yesterday morning and after 5 hrs made it to Manchester for a quick beer with our friend Tim, a much needed break from a long drive and good to catch up with a mate.  The interlude was short lived and we were on the road soon enough, following a small detour around the whole of manchester, which as it turns out is quite large we were heading for london again. directing our route using google maps on a 1 inch screen proved a little more challenging than expected and think in total we could have taken just over an hour off our 10hrs on the road if we had used a proper map....

any how, we made it to london, and back to mark's place about 8pm and made ourselves at home, well actually it basically is our home (provided home is determined by residency time and not financial contribution!). thanks again mark!

anyhow, we left london this am and went to my new work on the way to brighton, well what a place, a huge 3 story building thats only 2 years old. Its got fantastic classrooms I saw mine, looks pretty flash, projector and interactive whiteboard, computer in the classroom and all! its superflash! The staff were equally amazing, the principal is very cool and the head of science is a nutter and a laugh, i can see us getting on very well......

So that was super news and awesome to see the school, looks like a fantastic place to work, so that was a spectacular way to start the day, then 30 mins later we were in our new home...brighton!

Brighton is quite a nice town and massive! bit bigger and flasher than new brighton, but hearing seagulls squawking again was actually quite nice. With a positive experience at school both k and I were pumped and feeling super positive about our big brighton adventure so as two wide eyed foreigners pumped on adrenaline we hit every property agency in brighton, to cut a long story short here is a summary: lotsa driving, lots viewin, lotsa talking, a deal made, old lady crying cuz we took the house before her, me laughing maniacally!!!!

so its been a super day in brighton, all has gone well and things are really going our way! Should move into the place in next 3-4 days, it has a quest room so booking will be taken as of today.  

Where to from now?....... need to buy some furniture..... a washing machine, a bed, a fridge, and all that sorta jazz. h yeah, best part till last..... place is about 100m from beach! same distance from beach as our place in new brighton! Sweeeet!

Roadtrip

Big news!

I have a job, an awesome job by the sound of things. However it is Crawley/Brighton in the south, below London.  So that means a sad goodbye to Edinburgh and a massive roadtrip back down south.  Plan currently is to leave monday morning 28th jan, and make it to london in a day. Then the following day make it to brighton where we can find a house or flat. 

Bosnia

Check out our photos from Sarajevo. It was a brief visit, 4 days in Sarajevo and 3 in Mostar. But what a trip so much history, such good food and friendly people. Much of Sarajevo and Mostar still extensively damaged which was very strange, leaning a more in depth history was fascinating yet very sad and it is clear that feeling amongst certain people run high. The younger people seem happy to move on however there still seems strong feelings, justifiably in those who remember more difficult time more clearly.  A truly tragic history that people are all to willing to discuss which was super interesting. The feeling we both got was that the tough time are far from over.

On a positive note, the people were super friendly and it was great sampling the local fare and talking to the locals. Can definitely see myself returning to the Balkans in the future. 

Seeing Mostar and the Stari most (bridge) was incredible, one of those amazing sights  you read about in a book and seems so exotic and a life away then to finally see it.  Spectacular!

Bonne Annee

Happy New Year everyone!! Hope you all had a great night and didn't sleep thru it!

Pac and I had an awesome time in La Mongie skiing for a week with Emilie and Mathieu. We stayed in an apartment that looked directly over the ski field. Was an incredible time, waking up and being surrounded by mountains and SNOW!

We all surprised our selves and managed to do really well skiing. Pac even tried some off roading with the short skis. He did a few tricks sking between the trees and trying to do a few jumps. These however did often end up with Pac on his bum or being stuck in the snow in the middle of the track. Much to the amusement of my self!!

La Mongie is huge. It puts our ski fields back home to shame. There are an incredible number of tracks and you can even ski to the next field called Bareges. I love this ski field as a number of tracks are thru the trees. Also with the short skis we could go off roading and find our own way down!

Had a great new years with Matieu and Emilie. Emilie cooked an amazing meal for us all and we even got some fois gras! We played poker through the night with copius amounts of red wine. When it finally came to New Years the whole building went off with fire works, flares, toilet paper and people screaming Bonne Annee! By 12.30am it was dead silent! The whole building was suddenly so quiet like nothing happened.

On new years day we took some snow shoes and headed off up the side of the mountain. Was gorgeous, no one around, just the mountains and lots of snow. Check out the pics.

I tired snow boarding for just one day and I think Ill stick to skiing. I meet some little french kids, who Im sure just stuck round with me because they found me really funny and completely stupid!I was trying to be cool in front of these kids and was going really well down this learners slope. All of sudden this slope takes a steep left turn and I of course go down it, pick up speed, start getting the speed wobbles and fall straight down on my bum! OH MY GOD!!!!! It hurt soooo much! Im sure I have broken it. I now have this wicked black bruise on my bum.

On the 7th jan we headed off to London.

Now that I can kinds walk normally again and not wobble we are seeing some sights of London. We are staying with a mate here and totally taking over his house, thanks Mark :)!!

Better go, will up load some pics soon. Going to catch up with boys, they watching the Flight of the Conchords. Pac is practically crying watching it so it must be good!!

Good news Pac and I have an apartment in Edinburgh, Yah!! Its only temp but it gives us some time to find a permanent place. Pac also bought a cell phone today. If any one wants our address of Pacs cell number let us know :)

Hope everyone had a great new year. Keep the emails coming, miss you all xxxx

Paris et La Rochelle

Paris the city of love and La Rochelle the city of sailing.

We spent 5 days in Paris and there we caught up with our mates from NZ, Naomi and Andy. One thing that stood out when were visiting Paris, is that there winters are really really cold!!! By cold I mean really cold!
So when we stayed in our hotel for 2 nights with Andy and Naomi, Pac and I didnt think to bring lots of clothes. So you can imagine how cold we were and how we soon discovered the way of wearing a piece of clothing 4 different ways!! By this I mean the normal way, then backwards, then inside out and inside out round the wrong way!! Haha we were so chic and smelt so good!

Apart from the clothes we all had a great time in Paris. The Champs Elysees was all lit up for christmas and looked amazing. In front of the City Council buliding was an ice skating rink also for christmas and full of young people. La Defence had the arch lit up and looked incredible with the changing lights. Under La Defence there was also a grand market for chrsitmas, with people selling all sorts of things.
Randomly we went to see Jim Morrisons and Oscar Wildes grave in Paris. The first cemetry that I have been to, that is a major tourist attraction. Really strange.
My highlight of the trip was eating breakfast under the statue in Place de Republic. We had fresh warm crossiants and pain au chocolate, cheese and nutella........ what more could you ask for???? haha a squirell would top it off tho!!!

La Rochelle is a city right on the coast of south west France and its gorgeous. Full of boats and beautiful beaches, im so coming back here in summer! We caught up with another mate Andrew and spent 2 nights in La Rochelle.
We spent most of time walking around the Vieux Port (old harbour). This is the heart 

of the city, pituresque and is lined with restaurants. La Rochelle has beautifully maintained its past architecture and when you walk down the old cobbled roads, its like you are walking thru history.
We introduced Andrew to savoury crepes in a small restaurant. If you have never tried savoury crepes its a must when you come to france! I think Andrew really enjoyed them as he asked for a further crepe for dessert!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hope everyone has a very happy christmas xxxxx

Bordeaux

Yesterday Kristyn and I arrived back from a few days with our friends Mathieu and Emilie in Bordeaux. Had a great time looking around this awesome town, its a UNESCO world heritage site on account of its beautiful buildings and culture. It really is quite spectacular! Anyway Mathieu and Emilie looked after use well and we were very well fed and sampled some very tasty local beverages.

Check out the photos section for such highlights as the two old people who spend the day on the ice rink dancing in the center of town, the modern art museum and most importantly a photo of me the morning of our departure winning the final hand of poker, thus making me the champion of Franco-kiwi poker.

Anyhow, gotta have a shower and pack my bags now, off to Paris for the week, and returning via La Rochelle where we are gonna meet Andrew Macklan.

All the best and feel free to comment or fling a a line to know what is happening in kiwiland.