Kris & Chris & The World

La Dolce Vita

kristinandchris — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:29:00 GMT

The last month or so has been amazing, we spent two weeks in Italy then came back to enjoy two huge concerts in one week and Chris's 30th birthday. We are feeling very lucky at the moment.

We began our two weeks in Italy in Venice, where my number one fear at an airport came true - while waiting for our bags to come out someone grabbed our suitcase and started walking away with it! I chased after them, as Chris hadn't really noticed, yelling 'hey!!! thats my bag!!!'. Turned out we had exactly the same suitcase. Anyway only a minor hiccup, our journey had started at 7am that morning and at 5pm after taking a tube, a train, a flight, a bus and a boat, we finally reached our hotel in Venice. We were so excited when we arrived at the bus station, it was hot the sky was blue and Venice was as beautiful as I had hoped it would be in real life. It turned out that we had managed to time our trip with a festival, so that evening the Venetians celebrated Redentore; the end of the plague. All day there were party boats cruising up the grand canal and in the evening a huge fireworks display in front of San Marco. It was the biggest and longest fireworks we have ever seen, it went on for 45 minutes and was amazing. We spent a lot of time wandering in Venice, the perfect place for aimlessness. There was an international arts festival also on, and we were proud to see two New Zealand artisits represented and visited both their exhibtions.

Our next stop was Florence, which was if possible even more beautiful than Venice. By this stage we had wandering down to a fine art and walked the streets for hours. On our second day we went on a bus tour of the Chianti Region. Tuscany also lived up to expectation; it was vineyards, olive groves, cyprus trees, sunflowers and stone buidlings everywhere you looked. We spent a large part of the afternoon in the courtyard of a castle drinking bottles of chianti and eating bruschetta. On our final day in Florence we decided that we really ought to go and visit the statue of David. We felt like we were going because its what you do when you're in Florence, and were a bit complacent about the whole thing. But once inside we turned a corner and there it was bathed in light, and our opinions totally changed. Yes we had seen hundred of plastic statues, and postcards of it, but seeing it in real life is of course completely different. It is beautiful and amazing and looks like at any moment it will come to life and step down from the pedestal and be real. We were really glad we went. Afterwards, as is our tradition in foreign places we found something tall to climb up to see the view of the city. In Florence it was the bell tower of the Duomo, which had about 400 steps and in 30 degree heat was a bit of a challenge, but the view was worth it! In the afternoon we lay under a tree in the Boboli Gardens and tried not to fade away from heat exhaustion.

Next it was off to Rome, which was a definate change of pace from the elegant streets of Florence. Crossing roads made me fear for my life as the cars just went for it. Our first day we went for a huge long walk which included the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. Chris and I had seen a documentary about the dome of the Pantheon years ago so we very excited to literally stumble down a street and find ourselves right in front of it. We spent ages inside, and I got a sore neck from staring up at the ceiling, so beautiful and perfect. We then decided that we would stop for a cocktail enroute to the Coloseum and found a piazza nearby. Then our wandering took up the longest way possible to the Coloseum and resulted in a lot of grumbling from both sides about how sore our feet were. But at last we found it and sat for a while taking it all in before headed round the corner for a pizza. The next day we went on a tour of the Vatican Museums, which was quite overwhelming. It was really really hot and there was so much to look at. The Sistine Chapel was something else, again something you have seen photos of, but in reality completely and utterly amazing. It felt like we were standing inside a painting, and everywhere you looked was something beautiful. Afterwards we went to St Peters, and of course climbed the 500 odd steps to the top of the Dome. On our last day in Rome we went inside the Coloseum, which Chris was most excited about telling me it is like the original stadium, the home of sport. It was a bit creepy thinking of all the people who had been killed there, but amazing as well to see the remains and think what it must have been like full of screaming people. It was another hot day and after the Coloseum we wandering the Palatine trying not to faint from the heat. We found a fountain in an orange grove and sat in that for a long time. One thing I will always remember from Rome is all the fountains, whenever you feel hot you can look around and not too far away there will be a fountain to cool you down, that or a man selling slices of watermelon. In the afternoon we found an irish pub to watch the All Blacks and ended up there drinking with expat kiwis for 6 hours.

Next it was off to Sardinia to the town of Alghero. Our flight there was a little unsettling, the plane kept rattling and we were sitting next to a priest who had unfortunately bad breath. We spent the week chilling out at our fancy hotel which had a pool and a private beach. Our room had a balcony overlooking the sea and we got into a nice daily rountine of walking along the beach front to the main town for dinner and cocktails each night. Creatures of habit, we went to the same bar about 5 nights in a row, so much so that the owner started to recognise us and know what we drank. The weather was amazing, blue skies each day. Chris decided we should go diving, so I reluctantly agreed to do the intrduction dive. Diving has always made me a bit scared, becuase I start thinking about sharks eating you, and jelly fish. But I wasn't going to stay behind, so found myself in the water about to go for a dive with little instruction as to what I was supposed to be doing. The guide just kind of said okay and now we go down and off we went, it was pretty scary but just I was getting the hang of it and realising that yes I wasn't going to die and I could breath, it was over! As I climbed back onto the boat I grabbed a rope that was attached to a bouy and felt like I got rope burn. I looked at my hand and it was covered in brown spots, thinking it was just sea weed, i brushed it off. But then noticed that my hand was not only burning but swelling up - i had been stung by a jellyfish! We also spent a day exploring the island on a rented scooter, which was a bit scary as we had to drive on the wrong side of the road. It was such a cool day though, once we got over our nerves. We drove along the coast until the road ended and we found ourselves at Neptunes Grotto a big cave at the end of staircase running around the cliffs.

After an amazing two weeks in the sun it was a bit hard to go back to work in London, but we had some good things to look forward to, to take the edge off! We saw U2 for the third time at Wembley and my favourite band Pearl Jam the night before Chris's 30th birthday. For his birthday we went to Thorpe Park to ride rollercoasters, but it wasn't the greatest day for Chris as after the second one he got a bit of motion sickness and ended up throwing up in a garden! He spent the rest of the day feeling ill and I left him in a park and went on a few rides by myself (bad girlfriend). We also saw Jordon there fliming her show, which was a bit weird.

Its been a sweet life lately, that's for sure!

Gallery: Italy

kristinandchris — Sun, 2 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Venice, Florence, Italy & Alghero

Gallery: Brasil

kristinandchris — Wed, 1 Apr 2009 03:14:00 GMT

Gallery: Bolivia

kristinandchris — Wed, 1 Apr 2009 02:58:00 GMT

Gallery: Peru

kristinandchris — Wed, 1 Apr 2009 02:05:00 GMT

Gallery: Santiago

kristinandchris — Wed, 1 Apr 2009 01:57:00 GMT

Our first few days in South America

Slacker

kristinandchris — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:36:00 GMT

Its been over a year since I updated this blog! What a slacker. Anyway as I have decided that Bebo is just not good enough anymore, I have moved everything over to this new flashy site which friends I know use and it seems a lot better.

I've just re-read all my entries to make sure I didn't miss anything before I cancelled my Bebo registration. Its is pretty cool to go back and read everything I wrote about our South American adventure and our first year in the UK. It has also made me realise that we have changed quite a bit since we left NZ almost 2 years ago. I think sometimes I forget that I live in a foreign country because we have lots of friends here and we know what London life is all about now. But every so often I remember, for example in the supermarket yesterday I was at the fish counter wondering what the equivalent of Snapper was over here, took me ages to decide what to buy as I have no idea what the different types of fish are!

So what has happened in the year since I updated this...well....we went to Scotland for a week and loved it, before flying back to NZ to get new visa's - which took just over 6 months!!!!! We lived in Taupo with our friends and had a great time,we did a load os skiing and snowboarding, Chris broke his wrist mountain biking and as a result only worked 14 days in the whole time we were back, I cleaned toilets at a backpackers, we saw loads of our friends and family and stressed about whether we were going to get our visas or not (well I stressed...). Our visas came through and we decided to soak up as much of the summer as possible and I turned into a brown berry.

We came back to London at the end of January and are still in the process of sorting out our lives. Chris just got a great permanent job providing accounting services for Hedge Funds. He is enjoying it, and tells me that as far as number crunching goes its pretty awesome. So that is good. I am still looking for a job after being made 'redundant' from my last job a week before I was due to go back to it (bitter much!?). It reminds me of when we first arrived - Chris has gone into work and I am sitting around the house waiting for a job. I have had a little bit of temp work, but its definately a different place than when we left. Credit Crunch is not my favourite phrase thats for sure.

We are living with our friend Peter, which is great. In a really nice place which is bigger and better than the studio we were in last time. And occasionally we see foxes which makes me happy.

We arrived back in London in time for the big snow, which happened on my birthday so was pretty awesome, never had snow on my birthday before. We both had the day off so went and played in the park and made a huge snowman called Ted.

Its been so much easier this time around, well apart from the lack of work. We know how to live in London, and how to get stuff done. And its been really good to see all our friends again after 6 months away. Its also nice to be reunited with all my clothes and shoes as I had started to wonder if all my favourite things would be destined to stay in London while I was stuck in NZ!

Just need to find a job and everything will be back on track.

Its a long way home

kristinandchris — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:22:00 GMT


	The last month has been pretty full on. I went home for Katie and Jason's wedding. I was so excited to be coming home for the first time in a year I could hardly sit still and stayed awake for over 30 hours before I finally got some sleep somewhere near Sydney. Chris stayed in London, so I was pretty nervous about making the huge journey by myself but it was fine. I landed in Auckland and expected the tearful reunion with Mum and Dad only to come out of arrivals and not see them....so I waited.....rung them....then found them sitting in some chairs having not seen me come out. So no tearful reunion, but a pretty funny lovely one instead. The first thing that struck me when I came back to NZ was how nice the customs people were, and how smiley. It was so good to be back at Mum and Dad's in Mangatangi and although it was a really long flight (well actually 3 long flights) it felt like I had snapped my fingers and suddenly I was home. The next night one of my oldest friends, Jade and her new husband came over for a BBQ. It was awesome to see Jade again, and goes to show that when you have been friends for that long you don't need to see each other all the time and the friendship is just as good as it always was. I managed to get to Auckland to see another close friend, Sharon, and the same rule applied, it doesn't matter that we haven't spoken that much over the last year, we are still just as close as we were when I was in NZ. And then onto the reason for the season, the lead up to Kate's wedding. I always knew that would be Kate's bridesmaid, but to actually be there was at time a little bit surreal. I am so happy that I could be there as it was a very special time in her life. The days before were pretty busy and before we knew it, it was the night before the wedding. I was sleeping in the same bed as Kate, so had planned a little speach that I would say when we went to sleep, and then planned to wake her up with a huge 'Your getting married today!!!' but instead I was so knackered I feel asleep before she even came to bed, and woke up late and missed her in the morning. Needless to say felt like the useless bridesmaid.....but then again everyone knows I love my sleep! Kate was a most beautiful regal bride, I couldn't believe here was my friend all in white and about to get married. I tried so hard not to cry during the ceremony and in fact managed to suck it up until it was time for their first dance and then I just had huge tears running down my face. And suddenly it was over and it was time to go home, I can't believe how fast weddings go - they just fly by. The next day i had to say goodbye and that was pretty hard, goes without saying I cried again. Mum and Dad and I then headed to Chris's parents for a BBQ. It was great to see them, but I really wished that Chris could be there too as it was the first time they had seen me since we got engaged and also they haven't seen him for a year. After that it was on to Wellington, where I managed to miss my train to Masterton (how unlike organised me!) and had to get Viv to rescue me (just like old times) and drive me half way while my Auntie drove the rest of the way and picked me up. It was brilliant to see her, and of course she made all my favorite chinese dishes and baked a lots of yummy things. Being back in Wellington was kind of bitter sweet, it made me realise how much I miss living there. And after doing a fair bit of travelling in the last year, I can safely say there is no place like Wellington. It was cool to go back to Starfish and see all my old workmates, and of course pick up some new clothes! I had dinner with a load of friends, and it was great to see everyone, I wished I could have had longer though as I am sure I could have spent a whole night with each person and still not heard all their news. But it was off again the next day to Queenstown to see my sister and little nephew Sam, who was only a few days old when I left and is now a one year old. He was quite sick so was in Invercargill hospital, which is where I saw him when he was born before I left. So now I have only ever seen my nephew in Invercargill hospital. But that is far better than not seeing him at all!!! He is so cute, and I was really sad to say goodbye. So there you go, a pretty whirlwind two weeks, but I would do it again in a second. I have found it quite difficult coming back. I really miss everyone, and am feeling a bit homesick at the moment. But, a nice way of getting over that is to pick up your new engagement ring! And also to go to a little town in Belgium for the weekend. Chris and I spent last weekend in Bruges (which is amusing as there is a movie out now with Colin Farrel in it called In Bruges). Bruges is a great place for a relaxing weekend, especially if you like beer and chocolate. Which I do. So we spent most of the weekend trying different beers, including a cherry one (yum) and one that was 10% alcohol (gross). We ate quite a few chocolates too. And also hired a tandem bike and went hooning around the streets for a few hours. It was a great way to see the town, and generally quite hilarious. And as you had to drive on the right side of the road, we often ended up going the wrong way down streets. This weekend we are going to see Fat Freddy's Drop - another nice little reminder of home.

Burger Ring + 29th of February = AN ENGAGEMENT

kristinandchris — Sat, 1 Mar 2008 00:21:00 GMT

That's right people - I asked Chris to marry me on the 29th and he said YES. Waa hooo I am an engaged woman and I am pretty happy about it.

Decided to ask him the day before and didn't really believe I was going to do it until I found myself on one knee next to about 90 candles holding a burger ring.

Thanks to everyone who has rung and emailed already - we are feeling the love!

I left my Heart in New York

kristinandchris — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:20:00 GMT

New York was AMAZING - I was expecting it to be cool, but not nearly as fantastic as it was. There is something about the city, it has such a great vibe. We stayed in Chris's brothers apartment in Greenwich Village, it was on the same street as the building they used as the image of the apartment buidling in Friends so I was pretty excited about that. But also it was in a great area and really close to the subway, well actually that didnt really matter because New York is actually a pretty small island.

The first night we were there I was pretty confused about what the time was so we just went down to Times Square and to one of the oldest bars in New York for a burger, but it was straight home to bed for me cause I was struggling! Not to worry though the next morning we got up early for Jody's Tick it Off Tour - Wall Street, Statten Island Ferry, a helicopter flight over the city, lunch at Nelson Blue a NZ place (where I had the best bacon & egg pie since leaving home) and then a Ranger's ice hockey game at Maddison Sqaure Garden. Then in the afternoon I went shopping of course with Jody's girlfriend Giarna and then we all met up at a local bar in the East Village to watch the Superbowl as the New York Giants were playing the Green Bay Packers. The bar was really small but everyone was super friendly and at the end of the night the owner bought us a round of drinks. It was a pretty full on day, but I loved it.

The next day we took off by ourselves and decided to walk to the Brooklyn Bridge....it was so cold it felt like little needles were sticking into us. But it was a beautiful blue sky and we didnt want to waste the photo opps!! The Brooklyn Bridge was awesome and the views of the city very cool, but eventually I was so cold we had to head back. We had lunch at a crazy cafe in the East Village with Jody and Giarna - it was great to spent time with them as they knew all the great places to go. That night we went to a restaurant called Ninja, where you were served by Ninja's and sat in your own Japanese house thing complete with sliding doors. The food was amazing and a few dishes included Ninja 'magic' with swords and fire and smoke. Would recommend it if you every go to New York. After dinner Chris and I went to a Jazz bar on the street we were staying, and watched some fantastic live jazz. The bar was everything you would expect it to be - small, cramped with old dudes playing some tunes and a beautiful girl behind the bar. The only thing missing was a cloud of smoke hanging in the ceiling.

On the third day we went shopping (again!) and then met Jody for lunch after walking up half of Broadway to his office. Next stop was Grand Central Station, which is the most beautiful train station I have ever seen. Then we walked up 5th Avenue in search of Tiffany & Co, which we found next to Trump Tower. So finally I got to go to Tiffany and buy myself something pretty. I did however make Chris come in with me to look at the engagement rings...ha ha ha..... Afterwards we went for a walk around a frozen Central Park and finished off the afternoon with a drink at Trump Tower, which was extremly gold and 80s. That night we went to a crazy show that involved people spinning off cable and running on treadmills, a giant swimming pool that decended from the ceiling and had girls running around in it and ended with everyone dancing under the sprinklers, including me and Giarna - its hard to explain but it was one of the best theater experiences, and at one point made me feel physically sick!

On our last full day in New York we went to The Natural History Museum, which was a bit of a let down to be honest, but had some great dinosaur skeletons - which I loved. We also went through Central Park again and visited Strawberry Fields, the monument to John Lennon. And were in time to watch the regular hippie laying fresh flowers in a peace sign. We met Jody again for lunch at a great Italian place and then I did some more shopping... That evening we went up the Empire State Building which was freezing cold, but gave amazing views of the city. It was wicked to see all the lights, its so beautiful. We ended the night by a trip to China Town and it was the worst experience of the whole trip.

On our final morning we went shopping (yes AGAIN) and had lunch at the Boathouse in Central Park - which was very flash and a perfect ending. Then it was off to Buffalo to go up to Toronto to stay with Chris's sister, Lissy. Toronto was a completely different experience, but just as good. We spent lots of time with Lissy, Tony and their two kids and after the whirlwind of New York it was fantastic to have some family time. We had a great night out on the Friday watching Giarna's friend's band at a local pub and the next night we had a late Christmas dinner complete with a huge turkey and a drunken table tennis tournament in the basement. And it was snowing!!! I shovelled snow out of my first drive way, which I enjoyed but I am sure you wouldnt if you had to do it every day. On our last day we went to Niagara Falls!!!! Which was totally unexpected as I hadnt realised it was so close. It was pretty spectacular especially as it was frozen so the landscape had a surreal and magical look. But it was freezing, so we didnt stay too long!

We got back to New York so late that we only got about 3 and a half hours sleep before we had to leave for the airport, but actually it worked out really well as we managed to stay up all day and adjust back into the right timezone. It was a really fantastic trip for loads of different reasons; the vibe of New York, the shopping, the friendliness of Americans, time with family. The list could go on, all I know is I want to go back.

Paris in two sleeps, I am such a lucky girl.

Its Christmas....but not as we know it

kristinandchris — Sun, 6 Jan 2008 00:18:00 GMT


	Happy New Year!!! 2007 was quite possibly the best year of my life. We've just come back from skiing in Tignes in France which brings the country count for this year up to 12! We spent Christmas with Meraud, Anna, Tim and some other waifs and strays on the side of a mountain in the French Alps. It was a really fantastic resort and I have never seen so much snow in all my life! Was really beautiful and definately a white Christmas. We arrived on the Sunday before Christmas and spent a week there. On Christmas morning, Chris and I went skiing and had a Christmas snack at a restaurant on the top of a peak. It was pretty cool for our first Christmas together, but I was pretty sad on Christmas Eve as I missed my family terribly. At midnight the first few bars of When The Saints Come Marching Home played out across the resort, that definately cheered me up a little bit. On Christmas day we had a big feast of roast chicken and vegetables and we made it as festive as possible with christmas crackers and secret santa - I got a plastic chicken and Chris got a flying monkey. It was really cool to be around other kiwis who were all missing home and even more fun because can you really complain when you are in France!? We spent each day out on the ski fields and i am glad to say I got the hang of it! I had only been once before at primary school and couldnt remeber more than a snow plough to stop. Chris gave me a few pointers (Commit to your turns!!!) and by the third day I had graduated from the beginers slope (green) to ones that were a bit harder (blue) but did get rather freaked out on the red runs. Chris is, as you would expect really good so left me to it for most of the week, so I was glad when Meraud and I started doing runs together as its better to have someone of hang out with! Most days after skiing I would head up to the local supermarket and buy a baguette and some cheese and have a little feast. A french stick in France - you can't beat it!!! I managed to catch some of Meraud's flu germs and by the end of the week was feeling prettty sick, but kept putting it off each day so I could get out there. On the last day I skied for about 7 hours. At the begining of the week I had said I would like to do one day without falling over and do the first blue run chris had taken me on without falling over (I had smashed into a bank on the first attempt and just plain fell over about 5 times). On the last day I fell over once on the slopes and once in the toilets - by slipping on some water and steadying myself by hitting my face on the side of a door....but I did manage to do the blue run twice and didnt fall over at all!!! I was stoked. Once we got back to London my cold kicked in and I spent most of New Years Eve in bed...pretty quiet way to see the new year in, but am sure it is not a sign of things to come! Next stop - New York, Toronto and Paris - can't wait.

Where is the time going?

kristinandchris — Mon, 1 Oct 2007 00:17:00 GMT


	Well since I last wrote a lot has happened, including us going to Cardiff to watch the ABs bomb out of the World Cup which was quite frankly horrible and a pretty grim drive back to London on a bus full of upset kiwi's. I have never seen Chris so upset - he didnt speak for about half an hour after the game. Anway I have stopped being hassled about it at work which is nice, it got to the point where random people who called the office would hear my accent and hassle me!!! So we were glad when SA took it out, at least we could stay in London! Was upset about it for ages, but have moved on now....sort of..... Hmmm what else have we been doing.....we went to Amsterdam for a weekend to meet up with girls from Norway that we travelled with in South America. Now that was pretty cool. It was great to see them again, but also rather surreal as the last time we saw them was in Rio and then suddenly 6 months later we see them again in eurpoe and its freezing cold. We did a lot of wandering around the city and the red light district. Which was pretty crazy, it was really pretty at night with the canals and all the twinkling lights, but during the day it was a bit odd to see women in their underwear in windows and glass boxes everywhere. I really liked Amsterdam, especially its architecture - loads of leaning buildings and every one different in colour and little details, I of course took loads of photos of those which Chris tells me no one will be interested in seeing! We went to a Foo Fighters concert a few weeks ago - I was so excited because I love them. They were awesome! We had quite a good spot in the crowd about half way and in the middle, but the best bit was when they unexpectedly lowered a round stage from the roof and it landed right in front of us!!! Dave Grohl was right in front of me and he was so close it was crazy, I almost had a beatles hysteria like moment! They played on the mini stage for about 40 minutes and it was pretty unbelievable to hear My Hero and have Dave Grohl within a few meters of you. And then to top it off they bought Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen out to play a song. They are playing Wembley next year and we have booked tickets to that too. I say it every time, but BEST CONCERT EVER!!!! It is getting pretty cold now, and dark at about 3:30 or something ridiculous - every day I look out my window and sigh and think if I were at home it would hopefully be nice weather and everyone must be having BBQs and I am in an office and its dark outside. The only good thing I can see about it is that London sure knows how to put its Christmas decorations up and they look great cause its so dark so early! I walk down Carnaby st every day and they have these huge decorations up all down the street, they look like those paper circle things we used to make when we were little, you know - the ones that are all linked together. We went ice skating at Sommerset House last week. There is an outdoor rink, and it is in the courtyard thing of this great old building. It was so pretty and although I haven't ice skated since I was little, I am glad to say I only fell over once, and that was when I tried to launch myself at Chris in a Tourvil & Dean fashion and he neglected to catch me.... I am going iceskating again next week with work at a different rink somewhere in london. We are going to see Crowded House on Sunday night, should be great...probably make me home sick though!!!!!

6 Months Already

kristinandchris — Sat, 1 Sep 2007 00:16:00 GMT

On Tuesday it will be 6 months since we left NZ, doesnt feel that long at all.

We are finally feeling quite settled in, jobs ticking along nicely, Sky tv finally installed after a month of annoying bad service (important for furture grand slams etc) and I have found a vegetarian lunch place that is pretty much like Eds juice bar in Wellington, in fact it so simliar its a bit weird.....tasty stuff. All that we need now is for the All Blacks to win the world cup and everything will be perfect.

Speaking of the ABs we went to Edinburgh last weekend for the game against Scotland. We drove up and it was pretty cool to see more than just London and get a feel for geography of England. The game itself was okay but I was just excited as it was my first All Blacks game. Very cool to see it all unfolding in front of you. And in true small world style a guy from high school ended up sitting in front of us in a crowd of 64,000! In fact there were so many kiwi's there it was not surprising really. Everywhere you went were black jerseys and black flags - it was awesome. And for the first time I have thought that our flag should be changed to a black one with a silver fern on it, because thats all your mind looks for and associates with when searching for other kiwis at a sporting event. We're not dressed in red white in blue, we're dressed in black and white. Interesting....

So at the moment we are just watching a LOT of rugby, its great! We are planning on going to Paris next (PARIS!!!!!) but Chris doesnt want to go anywhere until the world cup is over for fear of not being near a tv, its okay though - I understand.

Familiar Faces

kristinandchris — Sat, 1 Sep 2007 00:15:00 GMT


	Last week I was walking down the street trying to find a shop that sells ribbon (dont ask!) and suddenly a guy yells out on the side of the street Oi! and comes running over saying 'i know you, youre from wellington' it turned out it was a guy who worked in the same building as Starfish and we always used to see each other in the lift and say hello etc. I didnt even know his name, and now I am in the middle of London and he is working at a gallery around the corner from my office. How crazy is that. What was even weirder was that I was still wearing all Starfish and holding ribbons, so pretty much simliar to how he used to see me except the wrong hemisphere. How do these things happen? Another familiar face is Chris's brother Jody, he's over from New York for the world cup, its so nice to see some family. We are going to Scotland next weekend for the All Blacks game and I can't wait!!!!!! We are loving being able to watch the world cup during the day time instead of the night. Also Dan Carter is on the side of all the buses in his undies, so thats nice too

Brighton

kristinandchris — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:14:00 GMT

Chris and went to Brighton yesterday for a bit of a wander about. And its true - Brighton rocks! It was great weather, which was odd as I had been wearing a wollen coat to work last week - but I am definately not complaining! And mostly it was nice to get out of London and go somewhere different. We didnt really know too much about Brighton, so it was cool to wander about and explore the beach front.

We did however find the rocky beach a bit strange compared to the ones at home. And inadvertently kicked stones into people who were lying down when we went to put our feet in the English Chanel for the first time (freezing, as you would expect).

We spent most of the afternoon on the Pier, which was great fun. There were loads of games where you try and win soft toys. Chris tried lots of them and in the end I walked away with two soft toys; a bear (from the golf game) and a purple and orange spotted lizard (from the basket ball game). But they have to be rigged as it took more than two goes to win the prizes... We ate a giant stick of candy floss and had fish and chips and enjoyed the English summer sun.

After the Pier, we wandered about the city trying to find the train station and instead found the Royal Pavillion, which is a very cool building that looks like it has lots of elaborate onions stuck on its top. Very cool!

And you can't go to Brighton without buying a stick of the Brighton Rock candy. In fact I got two....and was happy to see that yes it does say Brighton Rock through the middle. Love it!

A worker bee once again

kristinandchris — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:13:00 GMT


	My month of non work comes to an end tomorrow when I head off to Lloyd Northover to become an employed person again. The last few weeks have been fab - caught up with LOADS of friends for lunch, lay in the sun in various parks all over London. And roamed around parts of exploring the city. And even managed to go to a beer festival for an afternoon (tried some 'real' cider - it was great but very very very strong). Also a friend who we met in Peru has been here for two weeks - so we have been unemployed together and that has made it even more fun. Nothing like having a partner in crime. Today Chris and I got a fridge - had to lift it about 5 or so blocks and then take it home on the tube. Except when we got to the station they didnt want to let us through!! But we convinced them we could lift it and it would be fine - thank goodness as I am not sure what we would have done... needless to say I think Chris carried most of the weight, but my arms are very sore right now! We had some strange looks on the tube, and quite a few people laughed at us. But we are happy becuase sharing a small fridge with 5 other people wasnt really working out that well. Anyway I had better go and enjoy my last few hours of freedom...sigh.....

Employed Once More....

kristinandchris — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:11:00 GMT


	Yay! I found out on Tuesday that I got the job I really really really wanted. I start in a couple of weeks at a brand design company called Lloyd Northover as the Office Manager and PA to the Chairman. Its a maternity cover contract for 11 months so I am really happy. It seems like a very cool company and is located right in the middle of town between Oxford st and Piccadily Circus which is great as its close to home as well. You snooze you loose Stella!! So am turning my back on the fashion side of things, but after working at Starfish no other fashion business could compete or be nearly as cool anyway! In fact I havent found any stores here that are as good, and recently had a new coat sent over from Welli!!!! So in the meantime I am just mooching around London, meeting friends for lunch, going for the odd run in Hyde Park (just down the road from our house), cleaning Chris's clothes and cooking his dinner....not a bad life really!

Unemployment

kristinandchris — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:10:00 GMT

Have just spent the last week visiting numerous recruitment agencies in an attempt to find a more long term job. And find out if I got one tomorrow - so fingers crossed please everyone! If not, not to worry as recruitment agents are ringings me constantly. Have been put forward to a role at Stella McCartney....Starfish to Stella (weird).

Chris and I went to Toast NZ this weekend, my birthday present from Meraud, but Chris gets the present too . The Black Seeds played which was really cool and it was set in an orchard. Only problem was it bucketed down with rain, but the clever organisers handed out free ponchos and in the end it was quite funny with everyone wandering around in pink and blue plastic. I ate a huge lamb shank which was awesome as the meat over here leaves a lot to be desired. We spent most of the day dodging the rain and drinking a lot of beer. At the end I spent £20 on burger rings, rashuns, toffee pops (2 packets), marmite, pineapple lumps and perky nanas. Even though we havent been gone that long i couldnt contain my excitment at seeing toffee pops again. And lovely Meraud got me some K Bars too. At the end of the day Chris and I ran into two kiwis who we had last seen at the top of a mountain in Peru!!

Yesterday we went to Regents Park for the first time and it is huge and a pretty impressive park - we only walked around a little bit of it, but did manage to find the tennis courts of course. Also saw some squirrels - love them.

Got the new Harry Potter book on the weekend and spent most of today finishing it off. So all in all unemployment is treating me very nicely at the moment, but I am hoping to be back in the workforce soon!!!!

PS - another star spotting - we walked past Keria Knightly a few weekends ago, a few blocks from our house! She is beautiful and not as scrawny as all the photos make her seem.

Tea with Kirsten Dunst & other adventures

kristinandchris — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:09:00 GMT


	It is crazy how fast time is going over here! I am still temping...not really that ideal, but very good money. A few weekends ago I met up with my friend Charlotte in Islington for a cup of tea, we were then quite surprised to see Kirsten Dunst walk up the street, and then stop and sit at the table behind us!! Very off putting as she sat behind Charlotte so I spent the entire time looking at her, but trying not to look at her (she is tiny). How surreal is that? Needless to say I spent the rest of the afternoon star struck - but trying to be cool about it...! This weekend Meraud and I went to the Live Earth concert which was wicked. I ended up sitting near a girl from school, which was very cool if not strange - Wembley is huge and I end up near someone from HPC! So many cool bands playes but a highlight was Duran Duran (Ordinary Life) and the Foo Fighters (who I love). It finished with Madonna, and it was pretty amazing - look there's Madonna!!!!!! Also a good cause - so remember to switch off your applicances at the wall at all times, recycle, say NO to plastic bags..... Yesterday Chris and I caught up with a girl from our South America tour, which was very cool. Spent the entire day in a sports bar so we could watch the Wimbledon final. It was so cool to be able to watch it as it happened and not in the middle of the night - awesome game too... The only slight downer on the whole weekend was when chris and I tried to be clever on the way home on friday night and instead of taking the reliable tube, took a bus. Which happended to be going the wrong way (not that we would know) and ended up in North London with no idea of where we were, it took us 2 hours to get home and neither of us were that happy about it. Wont be making that mistake again....

Nice Grass

kristinandchris — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:09:00 GMT


	I spent yesterday at Wimbledon!!!!! Lined up for about an hour and a half to get in (by myself as Chris had to work) and got in at about 1pmish. And didnt leave until 9pm. I can honestly say I spent the entire time watching tennis. I didnt buy anything not even food! It was awesome. The only thing that was disappointing was that I was so excited when I got in that I didnt check the draw properly and missed one of my favourite players (Marat Safin - I think I like him cause he's a bit moody) while I was watching some random Great britian player get beaten. But it doesnt really matter beacuse I saw Venus Williams (with Serena in the crowd), and Jankovich, Bagdahtis, Davydenko, Nalbandian (for about 5 minutes), Johannson(being a complete sook and throwing the end of a match) and another favourite Juan Carlos Ferrer - who was so close I could see the stuble on his face!!!! I will be going back on Thursday to see if I can watch Safin! Of course if you dont like tennis this will mean nothing to you! But trust me - it was pretty cool.