I'm working in Dublin on and off at the moment so am catching cabs to and from the hospital I spend most of my time at. I walked out of the main entrance last night around 6.30pm and jumped into the cab at the front of the rank. Turned out the cabby was only around because he had to use the loo in Emergency - apparently he does normally wait at that rank. He was a nice guy and I made it back to the hotel in fair time.
Came out tonight about 7.30 or so and jumped in the cab at the front of the rank and - would you guess - it was the same chap. It was great. For once I was able to talk about 'second conversation' things in a cab. Fantastic... It was actually a real blessing as it was like I 'knew' someone in Dublin - other than the Turkish guy who gave me a traditional Turkish shave - complete with Straight-edge - the other day (you can't help but feel a bond with a guy who let's you live after holding a big long blade to your neck).
Happy Days :)
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
English Administration
I thought it was only fair that given I've made mention of the inefficiency of the English administration before :) (I rib my colleagues that 'queuing' is the only national sport the English are still good at), that I note that when I called the electricity company, EDF, to open an account I find that they had already opened an account for us - the day we moved in - a Sunday no less! They even had all the details correct - complete with the correct reading on the metre!
I'm not really sure how it all happened, but a big 'thank you' to whoever must have stood in the queue for us.
I'm not really sure how it all happened, but a big 'thank you' to whoever must have stood in the queue for us.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Good-bye TomTom
We had an excellent day on Sunday, for most of it anyhow. We went along to Holy Trinity Church, which was just excellent, similar to St Mark'’s Anglican (where we were married). The music was excellent and the teaching was great. We spent the afternoon doing some work in the warmth of our heated ENORMOUS living room, while outside was windy and cold.
We went along to Altrincham Baptist Church to check it out. Once again, a beautiful bunch of people and faithful teaching. On the way home, we saw a cute little Thai restaurant, so we spontaneously went in for dinner. Being a Sunday night, we were the only customers. ☺
Here's, the interesting bit… with full bellies and a great day we walked around the corner towards the car and the hazard lights were on. Had we left them on?? Apparently not. As we came up to the car we saw the driver's side window had been smashed in, glass all through the car, and our TomTom (Satellite Navigation, Matt bought for work) had been stolen. You have to hand it to them, it was a professional job, they even took the cord all the way from under the dashboard.
Matt hopped into gear and began ringing all the necessary people and then had a beer in the local pub while we waited for the tow truck. Our car was hauled away (at our request ☺ this time) and we had a ride in the tow truck back to our house, about 30mins drive. That was pretty fun.
We now have a rental car until the window is replaced.
Thankfully there wasn't any spiteful, unnecessary damage anywhere else; they just wanted TomTom.
Hope they got a good price for it. ☺
We went along to Altrincham Baptist Church to check it out. Once again, a beautiful bunch of people and faithful teaching. On the way home, we saw a cute little Thai restaurant, so we spontaneously went in for dinner. Being a Sunday night, we were the only customers. ☺
Here's, the interesting bit… with full bellies and a great day we walked around the corner towards the car and the hazard lights were on. Had we left them on?? Apparently not. As we came up to the car we saw the driver's side window had been smashed in, glass all through the car, and our TomTom (Satellite Navigation, Matt bought for work) had been stolen. You have to hand it to them, it was a professional job, they even took the cord all the way from under the dashboard.
Matt hopped into gear and began ringing all the necessary people and then had a beer in the local pub while we waited for the tow truck. Our car was hauled away (at our request ☺ this time) and we had a ride in the tow truck back to our house, about 30mins drive. That was pretty fun.
We now have a rental car until the window is replaced.
Thankfully there wasn't any spiteful, unnecessary damage anywhere else; they just wanted TomTom.
Hope they got a good price for it. ☺
Sunday, November 12, 2006
IKEA
On two occasions last week, we managed to see Ikea close its doors. They close at mid-night! Though it has helped us to make our apartment in Manchester feel more like home. We bought a desk for the office, though we didn't realise our new company car, didn't have fold down rear seats. How do you get a desk home at 12:30am?
Well, two lovely Muslim women also happened to out at Ikea late as well, saw us struggling and offered our desk a ride back to our apartment in their borrowed van, even though they lived in Liverpool.
Praise God.
Well, two lovely Muslim women also happened to out at Ikea late as well, saw us struggling and offered our desk a ride back to our apartment in their borrowed van, even though they lived in Liverpool.
Praise God.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Curry
Lads, regardless of what marriage counsellors tell you: marry a girl who can cook good curries.
Jo and I have just finished the best curry (and also our first) in our new home in Manchester. The curry was also the first time we've eaten at a table, at home since arriving in England.
Personally, I thought eating at the table was a bit over-rated. Granted, wine glasses were a lot easier to balance... Jo seemed to like it though. ☺
The best thing about all of this is that there was left-over curry for tomorrow night. How good is that going to be?!?
Jo and I have just finished the best curry (and also our first) in our new home in Manchester. The curry was also the first time we've eaten at a table, at home since arriving in England.
Personally, I thought eating at the table was a bit over-rated. Granted, wine glasses were a lot easier to balance... Jo seemed to like it though. ☺
The best thing about all of this is that there was left-over curry for tomorrow night. How good is that going to be?!?
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Our Time in Aus
It was really hard to leave such a beautiful country, but more, such beautiful friends and family. We feel completely spoiled and blessed by your love. Our time in Aus was so special.
We have attached some photos of our time, from Pat and Naomi's wedding to our time in Armidale, then Terrigal and finally in Sydney.
Thank you for being in our lives and playing such a special part.
If we didn't get to catch up with you properly, we hope it can happen really soon.
Take care and may God bless you richly.
m&j
Photos are here!
We have attached some photos of our time, from Pat and Naomi's wedding to our time in Armidale, then Terrigal and finally in Sydney.
Thank you for being in our lives and playing such a special part.
If we didn't get to catch up with you properly, we hope it can happen really soon.
Take care and may God bless you richly.
m&j
Photos are here!
Monday, November 06, 2006
Long Day
We're about to head to bed in our very own (rented) place in Manchester; a little tired & dazed after a typical matt&jo day.
After a couple of attempts, we talked our way into some leg-roomy seats on the Sydney - Singapore flight. Thanks to overbooking, we weren't as lucky flying on to Manchester, but it didn't matter as much as we just slept and watched movies (Jo: way better than legroom).
We landed about 5 Sunday morning and stood around discussing how we were going to collect our gear from storage, collect the keys from the estate agent and collect the car from Watford - Matt's work's English HQ.
(Jo: Much to Matt's delight, we were able to talk about this for hours as nothing opened at the airport till 7.30am ☺ ).
As the car rental places opened first, we hiked to their terminal and surveyed them, trying to find one that actually rented vans and didn't just advertise them. Fed up with English customer 'service' we found a cafe and passed time till we thought it was okay to call our man at the storage place. About 9.30am we went to call him - only to discover we didn't have his phone number (switching SIM cards in Aust had wiped it from our phones). We eventually called a random number at the very bottom of Jo's previous call's list (one more call and it would have disappeared ☺ ) and arranged collection for around midday.
We rented the largest car we could find (VW stationwagon/estate) and headed North - or so we thought. After a few pretty complicated off-ramps we found a road with the right sequence of Junctions (1, 2, 3, etc... ☺ ) and sped off. Things got a little confusing when Jct 16 didn't look like the map said it should. It was the 'Welcome to Wales / Chroesawa at Gwrymiau' sign that really gave it away. Dutifully chastised, we turned around, drove back to north Manchester and apologised profusely (Matt: I even took some of the blame).
All this driving gave us a lots of time to listen to our estate agent's hold music - at least until the phone rang out. We'd been calling to arrange to final payment and collection of the keys for our flat. Eventually they called and abused me for not calling and that it was impossible that I had called the office that many times! Love that British Customer 'service'! By God's grace, (and a little of Matt's patience - I was about to throttle the guy), we got the key to the flat, but not to the secure parking because one of the other agents had managed to take that home by mistake.
Not over yet. Having arrived at the flat, we thought get busy settling in to our new home. Not so. The flat was in a state. The toilet looked like it never been cleaned (and hadn't been flushed), there was body hair all over the bathroom floor and walls, a pair of dirty socks were behind the lounge (Matt: they weren't even the right size), the floorboards were sticky and dirty, there was a puddle of water leaking from the dishwasher, no filters on the kitchen fan, and the washer/dryer turned out only to be a 'washing machine! (Matt: Jo graciously omitted to note the large water stain under the bed that had spread up into some of the skirting boards). We were so disappointed, hungry, tired and jet-lagged that we just nuked a square in the shower to stand in and out for dinner.
We found a Indian restaurant where the service was fantastic, and the food was goood. (Jo: I laughed so much as Matt kept falling asleep whenever he wasn't talking or eating...) We both woke up when they brought out the biggest naan we'd even seen. You've got to see the photo...
Back at the flat, we found our clean sheets and douvet and left the rest for the Landlord to sort out. Sweet sleep.
After a couple of attempts, we talked our way into some leg-roomy seats on the Sydney - Singapore flight. Thanks to overbooking, we weren't as lucky flying on to Manchester, but it didn't matter as much as we just slept and watched movies (Jo: way better than legroom).
We landed about 5 Sunday morning and stood around discussing how we were going to collect our gear from storage, collect the keys from the estate agent and collect the car from Watford - Matt's work's English HQ.
(Jo: Much to Matt's delight, we were able to talk about this for hours as nothing opened at the airport till 7.30am ☺ ).
As the car rental places opened first, we hiked to their terminal and surveyed them, trying to find one that actually rented vans and didn't just advertise them. Fed up with English customer 'service' we found a cafe and passed time till we thought it was okay to call our man at the storage place. About 9.30am we went to call him - only to discover we didn't have his phone number (switching SIM cards in Aust had wiped it from our phones). We eventually called a random number at the very bottom of Jo's previous call's list (one more call and it would have disappeared ☺ ) and arranged collection for around midday.
We rented the largest car we could find (VW stationwagon/estate) and headed North - or so we thought. After a few pretty complicated off-ramps we found a road with the right sequence of Junctions (1, 2, 3, etc... ☺ ) and sped off. Things got a little confusing when Jct 16 didn't look like the map said it should. It was the 'Welcome to Wales / Chroesawa at Gwrymiau' sign that really gave it away. Dutifully chastised, we turned around, drove back to north Manchester and apologised profusely (Matt: I even took some of the blame).
All this driving gave us a lots of time to listen to our estate agent's hold music - at least until the phone rang out. We'd been calling to arrange to final payment and collection of the keys for our flat. Eventually they called and abused me for not calling and that it was impossible that I had called the office that many times! Love that British Customer 'service'! By God's grace, (and a little of Matt's patience - I was about to throttle the guy), we got the key to the flat, but not to the secure parking because one of the other agents had managed to take that home by mistake.
Not over yet. Having arrived at the flat, we thought get busy settling in to our new home. Not so. The flat was in a state. The toilet looked like it never been cleaned (and hadn't been flushed), there was body hair all over the bathroom floor and walls, a pair of dirty socks were behind the lounge (Matt: they weren't even the right size), the floorboards were sticky and dirty, there was a puddle of water leaking from the dishwasher, no filters on the kitchen fan, and the washer/dryer turned out only to be a 'washing machine! (Matt: Jo graciously omitted to note the large water stain under the bed that had spread up into some of the skirting boards). We were so disappointed, hungry, tired and jet-lagged that we just nuked a square in the shower to stand in and out for dinner.
We found a Indian restaurant where the service was fantastic, and the food was goood. (Jo: I laughed so much as Matt kept falling asleep whenever he wasn't talking or eating...) We both woke up when they brought out the biggest naan we'd even seen. You've got to see the photo...
Back at the flat, we found our clean sheets and douvet and left the rest for the Landlord to sort out. Sweet sleep.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Nana's House
Hey, I'm writing this from Nana's house; we're having a lovely morning chatting and sharing experiences and photos from our time in London.
She's amazing. She's 89 and has just set up her first laptop - complete with wireless internet and own email address. She's also posted her first comment on the web on our blog. ☺ Thanks Nana.
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