Steph's new bike

After cycling up and down the hills in Wellington for the best part of a year and a half on a bike that wasn't fit for purpose - it only cost 30 quid and I sold it for exactly the same as I bought it for (although I bought it with a helmet and lights) - I thought my biking days would be gone although I have been pining for the crippled old set of wheels even in the snow and ice this winter. I've honestly never been fitter with all that cycling and karate.

Anyway, unbeknowns to me Katie had been hatching a plot to get me back on the road - and she launched a big surprise on an unsuspecting Steph one day when he came home tired from work......

Katie had been tidying the house and had rearranged a few things so when I got home and noticed on of the boxes from the hall cupboard out in the hall I feared the worst so I didn't even bother to hang my jacket up in the cupboard.

For some reason Katie was getting a bit annoyed that i didn't want to see what she had done to the hall cupboard - I honestty thought that perhaps she had found a new way of rearranging our shoes or jackets so I said I would see it later. Miffed - Katie went to bed for a lie down and I ate my dinner then had a nap.

Later that night Katie had had enough and insisted that I must enter the hall cupboard to see what she had done - reluctantly I agreed and I must say I had no clue what the heck it was going to be but I certainly didn't expect what I actually found......

I've not been this surprised since Christmas day in 1985 when my parents got me a snooker table and hid it behind a curtain, writing a poem on an egg box as a clue as to where I should look. ;o)

I've not been able to get a proper photo of me on my bike yet but I will - let's just say it's a cracker and I am absolutely delighted with it. I've got myself tooled up with a new set of lights and some reflective gear and I have been braving the cold weather to cycle the 3.5 miles to work each day. It feels great - although the roads here are an obstacle course the roads are pretty flat compared to Welly. I've also got a little wireless trip computer for the bike and my top speed on the road so far has been 25.6 miles per hour.

Thanks so much to a very smug Katie - I love you lots xxx - and just watch out perhaps you might find something in a cupboard one day.........

Christmas dinner part 2

We went out last night for a rearranged Christmas meet up with some friends. Started in Metropolitan - and after remortgaging the house for a round of drinks we made our way to Pancho Villas where Ewen decided to persuade the waitress that it was Chris's birthday - cue hilarity when the waitress and effeminate waiter came out and sang Happy Birthday, classic.

New year - Bungo at the bells

We've been working pretty hard since leaving Wellington back in June - well, apart from sitting on a desert island - so it was no surprise when Christmas was over that I got ill. And it was the good old flu - none of this rubbish man flu sexist nonsense, just plain old hot and cold sweats, feeling dreadful flu. (it was probably woman flu actually as it certainly give me a really bad headache and feeling of impending doom) (not talking about you Katie xxx ;o)

Inconveniently it appeared on Boxing Day and we had a wedding to attend on the 28th - it was touch and go whether I was going to go or not but in the end I decided to drag myself out of bed. After all, when would I ever miss out on food and beer?  But I was a bit of a mess and had to leave the party to go to bed at 9pm. Match of the Day being on was simply a coincidence - honest!!!

Here is the happy couple (above) - and below is Katie looking stunning as usual

Here's me putting a brave face on things......

And here is the photo that made me decide that I should head for bed early..........correct decision...

So we got back to Glasgow and it was a race to get fit for Hogmany - we had been invited to our friends house over in Airdrie-ish and we were really looking forward to a no nonsense New year in someones warm house where we could just relax. But unfortunately it wasn't to be and I was still not up to it - I also didn't want to pass any type of flu bug onto our two godchildren who are 1 and 3 years old.

So we stayed in until about 11.30 and we decided that we should really pop our head outside and see what all this Bungo in the Bells talk was about. Apparently they have this thing every year where they do a wee parade and then have a bit of a countdown outside someones house with champagne (bring your own) and chinese lanterns and a bit of music. here's what it looked like.....

 Me pretending again that I am feeling fine - when i am actually in shock as I am not lying down in my bed.

 What's that old saying - starve a fever, drink champagne for everything else?

 Inevitably Katie and I met someone we knew - this time it was Katie's turn to meet someone she knew.

 Standing up sleeping, with a runny nose.....the champagne wasn't working.

 Everyone was excited about trying to set fire to paper bags...................

 But a high number of them just got stuck up the trees which kind of spoiled the effect.........;o)

We were in bed sober by 12.30pm - rock and freakin roll eh?

So that was New Year, another year over and 6 months since we left Wellywood - crazy business. A good friend of mine once told me that it takes at least 9 months to re acclimatise after living abroad and at the moment it's looking like that prediction is spot on.

More Christmas stories....

A few things that we missed from the Christmas at home post - my brother very thoughtfully ordered me some beer from New Zealand and had delivered for Christmas day. Imagine my delight when I received two 12 packs of the legendary Macs Gold.

I decided to put on my Newtown T-shirt to complete the picture - and yes, one of the 12 packs has mysteriously disappeared.......

Also, my Mum redecorated her dining room almost single handedly and it looked fantastic on Christmas Day - well done Mum!

The new flat......

We haven"t put any photos up of our new digs so here are some snaps of our living room and christmas tree....

The room is so big that it dwarves our 40 inch plasma and makes it look really small - it is also  a 9 ft tree ;o) More photos of the flat to follow at some point.....

Christmas back home 2010

Well, I'm not too sure if anyone still checks this blog out or not but I have been inspired to continue this diary thing a bit longer by Iain and Lorna who are still over in Auckland (mcavoyandginger.blogspot.com - sorry, I had this wrong!)  I've just been reading through both their posts and my old posts and I am so glad I have this as we have already forgotten so much of what we have done, and reading back it brings back all the emotions and thoughts of the moment. So viva the blog, long may it continue...........

Ok, so life isn't quite as interesting now as, "will we go and see some orangutans today?" - "nah, let's kayak down the river today and do the orangutans tomorrow". But it is still rather exciting in a different way ("same same but different" as they say in the markets in Vietnam when asked if something is fake or real.) It's been so great to catch up with family and old friends. There just hasn't been enough hours in the day to see everyone and we still have friends who we haven't got round to yet. It's also been great to be able to explore Glasgow again - it's the old thing about you don't know how good you have it until you've been away and come back again.

In my last post I was basically just updating you on our return to Scottish Soil but now I can update you on everything that's happened since. Have we actually been back 4 and a half months already? Unbelievable.....

Anyway, so Katie got her great job with sportscotland and I got some supply teaching in Motherwell two days a week along with some photography jobs (which were pretty stressful given that I hadn't done that kind of thing for two years and I didn't have my Apple Mac.). Katie started her lecturing again at Jordanhill and I started doing the child protection tutoring again.

We were also living with our friend Clare which although was nice and very convenient, it certainly wasn't ideal. I think flat sharing must be lots of fun when you are 18, after that I think it's best left alone.

Since then I have luckily managed to get a job at a school in Giffnock full time until Easter and we have moved into a flat in Strathbungo in Glasgow. (everyone always asks, including me when Katie told me we were viewing a flat, "where's strathbungo?".) It's basically just next to Queens Park and two minutes away from Pollokshaws West train station.

I have been looking for a good karate club but as yet I haven't found one, if only i could commute to Wellington for training........I really really miss it.

Since the start of December Glasgow has been reintroducing us to cripplingly cold temperatures and dangerous driving conditions. In Wellington there was maybe one icy day I can recall in two years but there was still no need to scrape the car windows. At the moment this is a daily chore. some people think the weather is a real pain in the backside but Katie and I are actually quite enjoying it - I did have to leave my car at work when the school closed though and walk home in the snow. Thankfully there were a healthy number of pubs between my school and my house that we just had to pop into to heat back up again.

So this is Christmas - and we are really looking forward to our first family christmas in 2 years. We have fantastic memories of last Christmas with Iain and Lorna on the beach in the bay of islands but this one feels pretty special being home again. We are also excited about the fact that we can afford to buy real presents for each other again and not have to shop for each other in the local New World supermarket.

Merry Christmas one and all, and never forget to stop once and a while and look around to be thankful for all the things that you have - family, friends, gifts, jobs and most importantly your health if you are lucky enough to still have it.

Steph and Katie xxxx

Catching up - the blog is back!

Hi folks,

Well, it's been quite a busy old time since we got home as you can imagine so  I will do my best to now update what's been happening. It's quite funny (and pleasantly surprising) hearing how many people have been tuning into the blog whilst we have been away - I suppose now the audience will be changing as our Kiwi friends look us up to see what's happening.

First of all, I must say again what a wonderful welcome home we had being met at the airport by all our family and dougie vipond from the bbc (most people thought he was there because Rangers were on the flight but I know differently).

Here's the last few shots of the trip and the first couple after touching down.....

 

                                                    The Airport in Bangkok - a tense wait

                                         Us on the plane on the way home - tired but excited

                     A blurry shot of our family waiting to greet us - my Mum's in the centre

                        Gazebo in the back garden - champagne and rolls and square sausages

We certainly had to hit the ground running - Katie had a job interview a few days after we got home and I had to act quick to get on supply teaching registers. We also had to deal with a flooded kitchen at the flat and Clyde Property's incompetence again.

We stayed at my Mum and Dad's for the first week or so and Katie spent some time down in Carradale. I was able to get myself down for the first big event of returning home.....The Mull of Kintrye music festival!

                                                    Katie's Mums house - very peaceful!

Campbeltown main street - and the world famous pipe band. It's reassuring that Scotland really is still more Scottish than New Zealand ;o)

Some shots of the weekend of madness....................

                                                                  Katie and Chantal

                                                      Some of the Campbeltoon guys

                                                             What country are we in?

                                                   The legendary Survivors Sunday night.......

And then it was back off to Glasgow, Katie had heard she had got the job and we moved in with Clare Young from Uni.

 But we still had some catching up to do with the rest of my family - so it was off to Aunt Christine's for a BBQ and some more gazebo action - on a sunny day!

That's all for now - more to follow _ including Brosley's wedding, more job news and the flat floor flooding fiasco.

And then they were home......

After a quite crazy final day of shopping for pressies, we flew out of Hanoi the next morning at 9am headed for Bangkok. We were going to have a long wait at Bangkok airport but that was going to be better than rushing around and having the fear of missing our connection to London.

The flight was uneventful and the day in the airport was rather uneventful too I am sorry to say - the highlight of being in Bangkok airport for any length of time has to be plain and simple good old fashioned people watching. What kind of people were we watching? Well, generally it was ugly, pasty, sometimes tattooed Westerners who were walking hand in hand with tiny Thai ladies. Without jumping to conclusions and without ruling out the remote possibility that these relationships may well be true love, we watched as as these odd couples roamed the airport - often with what we thought was the Thai girls sister in tow. We even saw one very old white haired guy get down on one knee to propose to a Thai girl who he may have been better trading in for a newer model.

Anyway, we had to wait 8 hours before we could check in and when we did we tried everything to get an upgrade to first class - we even said that we had tailor made suits we could change into if that would help. It was all to no avail however unfortunately.

One of the reasons for this failure may have been the fact that Rangers were also on our flight and they had actually taken up the entire business class section. This probably meant some people had already been bumped up from business class to first class to accomodate them. Rangers were on their way back from Sydney and joined us not only on the flight to London but also the flight to Glasgow. So it was good to see not only all of our family at the airport but also Dougie Vipond and a camera crew there to greet us.

When we left London on our flight it was reassuring to hear the pilot say "The weather in Glasgow today, is.....well, showers with sunny intervals and a light north easterly breeze". Glad to hear that the weather forecast has stayed almost exactly the same - what an easy job it would be to forecast the weather in Glasgow. What do these people get paid for exactly...I'm talking about you Sean Batty ;o)

So, we arrived back in Glasgow and were delighted to see our families there to greet us - my Mum and Dad had put up a Gazebo in the back garden and had some champagne on hand so we could all have a wee toast back in Garrowhill. Hilary (Katie's Mum) had even made a marathon journey up from Kintyre to welcome us home and to drop off Katie's VW Golf before jumping back on the bus to get home again. (We thought we'd had a long trip!)

So the trip has ended but the adventures will be continuing for a while yet so I think I won't quite retire the blog as yet as there are now people who are on the other side of the world who may want to read about our adventures back home (don't worry Lorna and Iain we will keep your fingers on the pulse). The audience may change but we think we will continue to write some entries so please do check back from time to time to have a peek and see what we've been up to in our quest to set ourselves up all over again.

All the best,

SB & KO.

Halong, Sapa and 3 days in Hanoi

Hi folks, this is just a quick update on our last few days so apologies for the brevity and lack of pics......

We are now back in Hanoi after a very busy old week - first of all we arrived in Hanoi and stayed for one night (even managed to squeeze in a run around the lake in the old quarter). Then it was time to get busy again with our final sightseeing itinerary.

Due to a diminishing amount of available time we bucked our usual D.I.Y approach and booked some tours to Halong Bay and Sapa. Halong bay is a stunning world heritage site and our tour involved staying overnight in an old style Junk. it was a really brilliant trip albeit probably a little bit quick. During the tour we did some kayaking, jumping off of the junk and visited the "amazing" cave (formerly known as the surprising cave apparenty). One of the funniest things about this tour was that almost all the food was shellfish and with my uncertainty whether I have developed an allergy or not I avoided it - unfortunately for me however that meant my menu for meals consisted of tofu, tofu and some more tofu. It also meant that for the convenience of the staff (so they made sure we go the right meals) Katie and I had to sit closely to an overweight, pale, vegeterian psychiatrist from Austria who looked utterly miserable and she really didn't utter more than two words the whole time (all in all a wonderful advert for not being a vegetarian)

We got back to Hanoi and we had four hours to wait before our trip to Sapa began. Sapa is an old town settled by French and is quite far North (close to the Chinese border). our tour began with a sleeper train which wasn't too bad (the highlight of which is hiking the length of the train many times with Simon and Nadine from Germany in search for the mythical restaurant car and a cold beer - I am considering selling the rights of this adventure story to Peter Jackson) we then trekked most of the first day to a few local villages (followed everywhere by villagers whose mantra is "you buy something for me", "good for you" etc etc.) The trek was stunning and we got some really nice weather for it - as part of our tour we had elected for a homestay where a group all come together and sleep in a quite traditional and basic villagers house. This wasn't the kind of homesetay I imagined where we would sit with the family and sing songs etc but in fact much more of a youth hostel feel with all the foreign guests talking to each other and drinking beer. It was a good time and we spent a lot of time trying to list famous Dutch, French and Scottish people. The vote for the most well known Scottish person with some of the Dutch youth? Paulo Nutini........oh dear.

The second day in Sapa involved another long trek and finished with a heavy rain, muddy shoes, a waterfall and a sleeper train back to Hanoi. We arrived back at 5am this morning and are now staying in the medallion hotel in Hanoi for three nights of luxury and relaxation before the trip home.

I should mention that one of the great benefits of doing a tour like we did is meeting like minded people and making some new friends. Particular mention must go to Nadine and Simon (Simon works in sport) from Germany, Sylvain (sports coach) and Milla (teacher) from France and Shane from Manchester. All great people who we hope to see again some day.

So our time away from home is almost at an end - you'll be glad to hear we are very much looking forward to it and can't wait to see everyone again. Unfortunately because we won't have jobs you will all have to feed us and look after us for as long as it takes for us to get on our feet again - perhaps you cuold all get together and put together a roster for accomodation and meals ;o)

You will also be glad to hear that we have carried our waterproof jackets all the way from New Zealand because we are almost guaranteed to need them when we walk out the door of Glasgow Airport on the 2nd of August.

All the best, see you all soon,

SB & KO.

New photos and Hoi An

I have managed to upload some photos to our flickr page, just click on the new images to the right of this post to be transported there - unfortunately they are a bit mixed up and I haven't had time yet to add a description but it's hong kong, k.l. and saigon.

I am having trouble uploading photos from Katie's camera (which will be a bit more fun and interesting) - I will persevere. ;o)

Just arrived this morning 7.30am in Hoi An - staying at a really nice place and Hoi An itself looks fantastic. It is the place to get luxury fitted clothes made to order at cheap ish prices so I am envisaging a bit of a shopping afternoon or two.

For those who want to know - the 12hr sleeping bus was actually ok albeit cramped and the fact that some vietnamese couldn't grasp the fact that smoking on the bus wasn't really to everyone's taste. The bus driving was appalling but we both managed to get a fair bit of sleep. They tried to put us in some seats at the back which we didn't want (it was liike being in the boot with 3 other people.) But Katie wasn;t standing for it and got us shifted to our original seats. Hoorah.