Woody and Chamby

Wales was wonderful, Gareth managed to come along as his cricket game was called off due to rain.  We stayed in a cute little village in a really old house.  Kate and Jaz are really great, they both are enjoying all that England has to offer.  We managed to see a beautiful castle (Harlech Castle built in 1293), a fantastic beach, some great villages and quite a few pubs (what more could you want?).  Gareth and I also visited the Black Country Museum last week, we learnt heaps about the area that we are living in and got to go down a very old coal mine…. The roof was under 5ft so you can imagine that Gareth had to bend in half to get through parts of it, hehe.

Kia Ora,

We are all good, Gareth has another interview next week and I might just go and work in the bar down the road.  We are off to see a castle today (cool aye).  I’m going to Wales this weekend with Jaz and Kate, Leisha and her boyfriend may come and visit too.

Our email addresses are:

gareth.aliesha@gmail.com

aliesha_chamberlain@hotmail.com

Take care…… later skaters

Hello from wet and rainy england!

Yes the weather has been disgusting lately after a couple of sunny days 2 weeks ago.

Anyway…update time.  Our car was leaking oil and had a few other problems (never buying another ford ever again! - sorry scotty) so we took it back to the car dealer and he said it wasnt worth fixing so he offered us another car for the same price so we might take that one but we will have to sit down with him to sort everything out…its a ‘96 Rover 416 (1.6 litre) and is a 4 door sedan so i have alot more room in this one! and it has a sunroof (as do most cars here actually, for some reason). 

Also, i got the job at the NEC that i went for the other week!  but its on a short term contract at the moment (6 weeks) so i will keep looking for a more permanent job cos i can cancel my contract with a weeks notice if i find something better which is cool.  The NEC is a huge event complex with 2 or 3 huge arenas which is where they have concerts and hold exhibitions all year round.  I am supporting the exhibitors with any IT queries they have with there computers, network, phones etc.  
unfortunately i cant get discounts on exhibitions or concerts which came to mind straight away but i’m still enjoying the job so far.

Cricket: Has been abit mixed so far, we havent done that well as a team yet and my individual performances have been a bit up and down although i have managed to pick up 2 or 3 wickets each game it hasnt been good enough for my expectations!  I am really the only bowler in the team so there is alot of pressure on me to get everyone out but the last 2 games have been rain affected and bowling with a wet ball is not the easiest.  At least i’m getting fitter bowling all these overs though!

Guys in my team are a great bunch and i’ve already played against a kiwi overseas from auckland and an aussie guy which is quite cool.  Good to talk to them about nz and aus makes you feel at home again!

Aliesha has worked a few more days at one school and is managing ok.
At least it is good money at the end of the day. Apparently she spoke to a few of you at ambers flat warming the other night (sorry i missed out on that one) thanks again for ringing us! very nice to hear from you all.

Keep up the comments on here as we love to hear what your doing even if it is boring everyday stuff!

Take care everyone, talk again soon
Gareth

p.s. Mum, hope you received my Mothers Day card etc the other week.

I have started “teaching”, my gosh, what an experience!!! The kids don’t care, they don’t listen and they don’t want to be at school.  Don’t know how long I will be putting myself through the torture.  Gareth had an interview yesterday at a really big company in Birmingham (the NEC, a huge events complex) he hears back today, fingers crossed.  We went to the Safari Park the other day…. man it was cool, the animals are all free to roam and you drive around in your own car…… Giraffes try and put their heads in the windows and they dribble all over the car.  My favourite was the baby Rhino, man was he cute!! We also had a Tiger come right up to us and drink out of a water bucket 1/2 metre away (dont worry the tigers were fenced off from others)! that was cool!  The photo is of Mark’s dog Freddie, he is only 6 months old so he is still naughty and very playful, you can imagine that he was instantly my friend.

I went to Shrewsbury on the weekend to visit Kate and wow guess who was born there and went to school there….. Charles Darwin.  Check out the photo!!!  OK only the Biologists will appreciate this one!

For anyone that doesn’t know, here are our UK mobile numbers

Gareth: 00447876063083
Aliesha: 00447909777569

We currently DO NOT have a home phone or internet but will hopefully have that arranged in the next week or so! 

Today we have trained into Birmingham for aliesha’s interview with a teaching agency.  Yesterday we bought a car - a 96 ford fiesta (little green machine)  will post pic once we pick it up for £600 (should be able to get half back when we sell it).

We have caught up with Chris and Andrea already and had a big night with them and some of my cricket mates in Stourbridge. 

I had my first cricket game sat, had a win and took two wickets but should have had two more but both times i stepped over the line when bowling and was no balled!
Already know 4 guys from last time i was over here so really good.

That’s about it for now…will talk again soon.  Keep the replies coming please, great to hear from you guys!!!

Hopefully we both have jobs next time you hear from us!

Gareth and Aliesha

We have finally arrived in England…. Our village is a really little village, it has 3 pubs, a general store and a butcher (but we are kind of close to a bigger town where Gareth stayed last time he was here). The house we are in is really nice, the owner of the house is a really nice guy and is there about 3 nights a week and the rest of the time we have it to ourselves. Gareth went to training last night and met the team, he starts playing on Saturday. We are in London today sorting out our bank accounts and cell phone numbers (we staying on Leisha’s couch tonight). Our house is currently phoneless and internetless but we are hopefully getting that sorted very soon. I have an interview with a teaching agency on Tuesday and Gareth is trying to sort out a job with some guys from the cricket club. Fingers crossed that things settle down and we get sorted in the next few weeks. Yes I am a little homesick but I’m sure it will pass (aliesha).

OUr address is:

30 Woodgate Way, Belbroughton, Stourbridge, West Midlands, United Kingdom DY9 9TL

FRom the other side of the world, Goodbye for now

Check out our house (below)

This place is amazing!! really is fantastic…

Every third person on the street is on their cell phones! If you so much as look at someone they will try and sell you something (of course we are prime targets!) there is literally thousands of people walking the streets and yellow cabs by the million beeping and yelling at each other. Today we woke up a little late (2pm) but managed to squeeze in the empire state building and tonight saw a broadway show which was very cool (it was “The Wedding Singer”). Tomorrow we will wake up earlier! and get a full days sight-seeing in including the statue of liberty and ground zero, brooklyn bridge and central park before we fly out to london at 11pm.

Thats it for now…talk soon.

G & A

We made it!!  The goodbyes were sad, the flight was all good, our room is fantastic!!!!!! and the local people are very friendly (although we can’t understand what they are saying) there are 10 tv channels and only one of them is English speaking and it is the CNN News!  Breakfast cost us about $70nz, so things aren’t cheap but hey they are beautiful so that’s ok.  Tonight we are venturing outside the resort for some dinner at the “Roulette” (no it isn’t a casino!)

We fly out to New York tomorrow night.  Until New York…. Good bye and kind of missing you

Here are some pics of the Resort - Looks good huh!

Aliesha and Gareth

Hello Everyone, and welcome to our Blogg site! Aliesha and I will be trying to update this as often as possible with comments and pictures so that you can follow us on our adventures (if you are interested)! Hope you enjoy it…cheers Gareth The Goodbyes……………..