Tuesday 30 September 2008

Packing up a storm



Today is move day. I went to bed after midnight and was up at 5am. So much still to sort out, and taking care to keep the stuff to go separate from the stuff we need with us. I don't want our passports going on a 3 month boat trip!

Odd to be cleaning mud off boots at 6am. NZ has strict biosecurity regs so all traces of mud etc. must be cleaned off things.


Wednesday 24 September 2008

The hardest word?

Elton says that it's 'sorry', but I'm starting to think that 'goodbye' isn't too hot either. I always knew that this would be one of the toughest periods of the move. All that I really want to do now is to be on my way, as with most things the anticipation is more to deal with than the thing itself.

Intellectually I know that for most people it isn't 'goodbye' but rather 'au revoir'. For some that may not be the case though, and that's hard.

Friday 19 September 2008

Tuna for Alex

There are a plethora of places to pick up some lunch near where I work. Like most people, I have my favourites that I return to on a regular basis. One of the naughtier ones is the tuna and cheese toastie from Eat. It has fat, it has calories, it's a treat rather than a staple.

I'm not going to spend this post going on about how it tastes etc (good!), the thing about this sandwich option is the ordering system. At Eat they take your sandwich and put it in the toasting machine and then take your name and write it on a paper bag. Once the sandwich is ready they call out the type of sandwich and your name, as in "Chicken for Dave". This seems like a good system, but it never quite works like that for me.

Normally I am Alex. I can accept this as I know that I can be softly spoken and people don't always hear what I say. How they got to Helen I'm less sure of. It could be worse, my friend Gillian has been Joe on more than one occasion.

Maybe that's part of the driver to move to NZ - to escape my alter ego of Tuna for Alex.

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Gerry, Gerry!

We're in the process of working through all of our opened bottles of alcohol prior to the move. Before the inevitable, and probably unpalatable sake and midori cocktail, there is half a bottle of tequila to see on its way. My normal tequila based tipple is a margarita, but there is a stumbling block - the triple sec is already finished. This left me in a quandary: buy more triple sec and then be left to drink it when the tequila runs out, or drink the tequila in non-margarita form. Then it came to me - there may be a third way, and one that doesn't involve Tony Blair at that!

Gerry's is a Soho institution. If you've never been you should head off there immediately. At the far end of Old Compton Street it has the most amazing range of alcohol you've ever seen, including miniatures and half bottles. In most places you are lucky if you kind find one variety of orange liqueur (aka the devil's semen as my friend Soph would call it), and it's nigh on impossible to find it in miniature form. In Gerry's the conversation went like this:

Me: Hello, I was wondering if you had a miniature of orange liqueur. You know triple sec, grand marnier, cointreau and the like?

Gerrys' man: We have all three of those and a number of others in miniature, what would you like?

Me: Goody, I can have margaritas now!

http://www.gerrys.uk.com/index.aspx

Friday 12 September 2008

Le weekend c'est non

This weekend we had planned as our farewell to Europe. Travel out to Paris on Saturday morning, mooch around, spend the night in the ridiculously expensive Hotel Crillon, all paid for with frequent traveller points. Sadly, a fire in the Channel Tunnel seems to have put paid to our plans.

Instead we will have to go for the 'staycation' (vacation at home) option. Perhaps we should speak French to each other, eat French food, and pay someone to be rude to us.

Thursday 4 September 2008

The big sleep

I've not been well this week. You know that you're not well when you sleep all day, and then sleep all night too.

We've taken the next step on the road to letting the flat - appointing the agent. They're coming round next week to take pictures etc. Will need to try to make the place look less like the scene of a minor skirmish by then.

Had a lovely weekend visiting friends in the West Country. I'm so envious of them growing their own veg, having pets etc. Hopefully this will be more like the life that we have in NZ.