Col & Rens UK Trip

Well its currently Saturday afternoon here so i thought i should update this and say what we did last weekend. Saturday we had a pretty quiet day. In the afternoon we caught a bus into the city and went to the movies. We saw Mission Impossible 3. First time we had been to the movies are anything like that since we have been here. Nice to do something simple.

Sunday was another Take That concert. We left for the city in the morning and went into the city again. This time we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. We walked around a lot of it but the main reason for going was to look at the Air and Space museum. There were lots of planes and interesting things there. Sadly, one of the things in the museum was invented by someone with the name Harper, so some photos were taken. It was a early model 3 wheel ground vehichle. Its not very exciting, but I feel the urge to add photos and this is pretty much all we have.

After the museum we went to China Town which is only a few minutes out of town. Once there we had a look around and decided on somewhere to go for tea. Its really the first time we have gone out for a proper meal since we have been here. We decided on a nice little looking place that had a buffet meal. The place was called Pan Asia and the food was actually pretty good. Once tea was finished we walked down to the MEN Arena.

Once Again we were here to see Take That. The tickets for this time were better than the last and it was actually more enjoyable than the first concert. On going into the stadium there were signs everywhere saying this concert is being recorded and by walking through the doors you give consent to being recorded. During the concert one of them mentioned he was talking too much and it will be the extended edition DVD. I guess this will be released as a DVD at some stage.

Once again there was no Robbie Williams at this concert. If anyone is interested in how you can not have someone turn up for a concert, yet still be there follow this link and watch a video from another Take That concert.

Its 4:30pm now and it time we left to go Unicef Soccer Aid. In the last few days its been announced that Diego Maradona will be playing on the Rest of the World team so hopefully he will get a kick and we will be able to come home saying we saw Diego Maradona score a goal.

Up until now we haven't mentioned our house where we live but thought we would add a few photos so anyone who is interested could actually have a look at our house. I can feel your excitement. We live in Walkden which is about 20 minutes out of central Manchester. There is a bus which goes right near us which goes straight into town. It runs every 10 minutes so its fairly easy to get anywhere we need to go. Just up the road from where we live is a full shopping centre. There is a huge Tesco supermarket, several sports stores, Blockbuster, a mall which has lots and lots of shops. Not to mention BINGO!!!! Bingo seems to be big over here for some reason. I dont think its something we will be doing which is probably a good thing. Every time a number is called i would probably chuckle and whisper "You sank my battleship".

We are just renting a single room in the house with a couple, a 7 year old daughter, and their French Nanny. Its really laid back and everything is going really well. We both get on well with the everyone in the house so its a pleasant living environment.

Anyway.. Our house is a semi detached house and is double storey. On the second floor is a bedroom and the home office for Chris, the guy we live with. He runs his own business from home and has about 7 PCs up there which is handy. The shower downstairs is huge and actually has a steam switch so you can actually sit down in the shower and its like being in a Sauna. Currently there is Pay TV in 2 rooms, but by the end of the month we should have our own foxtel box in our bedroom as well which will be handy. To make things cooler they are the ones with hard drives in them and you can record stuff. Sky TV over here has much more than Foxtel in Australia. There are so many more channels and a lot of them actually have good stuff on them.

Our room downstairs is actually really good. Its a big room and we have a King Size bed, a TV, our Computer (which we got off ebay!) and a couch. Handy having the computer as we have a webcam and headset etc so its easy to keep in contact with those at home. Yay.. The PC we won off ebay has actually been really really good. Its sad, but it was the cheapest way to get a PC that would do what we wanted. We didn't realise it but it came with a printer that was also a scanner so we have that as well. Its scary but we are using about 12 power points in our bedroom at the moment. Thankfully our rent includes power :-)

Another member of the house i should mention, is the 2 bengal cats. One of them is actually currently pregnant so in 6 weeks or so there should be kittens running around. They actually breed and sell them so that should be pretty cool to see. There is 2 photos. The photo on the left is the cat thats pregnant (Zara). The photo on the right is the other cat (Selina) who i think Renee was trying to blind while taking this photo.

I knew it had been a while since i updated this blog, but didn't realise just how long ago it was. Oooops

I guess I will explain a little on what we have been doing lately. The weekend of 22nd April we went to Barnsley and spent with Graeme. We watched him play cricket and then went out for tea and had a look around the city of Barnsley. Barnsley is a lot bigger than i thought it was going to be. I was expecting a little town like Skipton but i was surprised. They actually had a KFC and a McDonalds. It works out well because i think it would be a touch boring living in some of the smaller towns that you find around.

After the weekend we went and saw another Manchester United match. We saw them play Middlesborough this time. Mark Viduka plays for them so we were kinda expecting to see him play. He didn't. As Middlesborough had made the UEFA Cup Final they rested all their quality players. Once again, we saw a game that ended in a nill all draw. At least this match actually was a bit more interesting and had more chances. A goal still would have been nice to see.

We spent a fair bit of time looking for jobs and looking around Manchester. One day on the bus ride into town a saw a poster on a fish and chip shop window for the 'Buddy Holly Musical'. I was so excited!! It was that week so we organised tickets to get see that on the Saturday 29th April.

During the week of job looking there was one agency that had a data entry job which i could do. Basic work, but it was money and something we need. After a week of we'll call you this afternoon, and then calling the next day, i eventually began work. I am working for Barclays Bank and working in Salford Quays. Nice little area just out of town. From where i work on the 6th floor i can see Old Trafford, the Manchester United stadium. Its a really nice area so can look down the river, see a mall and a theatre which is were Buddy Holly show is. More info on the area can viewed at http://www.thequays.org.uk/

The Buddy Holly show was pretty cool. I was humming and singing Buddy Holly songs all that week so someone was getting a little annoyed with the fact i wouldn't shut up. The show itself was pretty cool. It just went over the story of his life mixed with his songs. I guess its why its called a Musical. After the show we had to go shopping as i needed stuff for work. We walked into the first shop and they were also playing Buddy Holly songs. Funny...

The 4th of May saw a monumental occassion in the city of Manchester. Well it wasn't very important for me but Renee thought it was. I am speaking of Take That coming back to their home town and performing their first concert here in over 10 years. Sadly... We were there. We didn't have the best tickets but they were cheapies bought on ebay. Paid less than what the real price to buy them through ticketmaster would have been. It was actually a little interesting to see them. Renee enjoyed the show while i secretly kept hoping Robbie Williams would appear. He didn't. Still... We have tickets to see them again on the 21st May so maybe he will be there then.

The weekend just gone we decided to go down to London. When we first arrived in the UK we saw One Flew Over a Cuckoos Nest with Christian Slater. Renee is a big fan so we decided at some stage we would get back down there and see it. It was back for a 10 week period and finishes early June so it was either this weekend or not at all. Initally we booked a bus down there leaving at 6:45am on the Saturday morning but then found we couldn't get into town to catch the bus so we had to change to the 9am bus. Problem was that it arrived in London at 1:30pm and the show started at 3pm. Not much time but it was the only option.

We caught a bus early from our house into town to catch the London bus. The bus got stuck at road works and for a while it looked like we might miss our buss to London. In the end we got there and it was all fine. The London bus we found out was broken down so they had a temp bus instead. We started off and hit delays. We ended up making a toilet stop as this bus didn't have a toilet and by the time we got to London it was 2:30pm only leaving us 30 minutes to get to the show. We caught a taxi and got to Picadilly Circus. We then went searching for our theatre and after asking a couple of people we found it. We picked up our tickets and sat down at about 3:05pm. Luckily the show had started yet. We were only sitting for about 1 minute before the show started so we were fairly lucky.

That night we saw Blue Man Group (http://www.bluemangroup.co.uk/) as well which was cool. We stayed the night in a cheap hotel right on Picadilly Circus. I booked through a discount website and paid £39 for the room for the night. Pretty cool considering when we check in the priceboard behind reception had £89 as the price. Sweet!!

We got up the next morning and walked down and saw the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Interesting to see, but after a while it got a touch boring. We got a few photos though so i guess something mildly interesting came out of it. We caught our bus home and this time it was running on time. Got back to Manchester late Sunday night.



That Monday morning i went to work and Renee was still unemployed. By the time i finished work Renee had a job and was also finishing for the day. She is currently a receptionist in a Hydraulics place. Sounds like the job might only be temporary but its more money coming in at the moment.

So at the moment everything is going well. We are both well and everything is slowly sorting itself out. Any emails that come in I have been replying to but haven't sent many others. Write and say hello and let me know how everyone is going.

In short... What we have planned for the next few weeks
Sunday May 21st - Take That

Saturday May 27th - Unicef Soccer Aid Charity Match
http://www.unicef.org.uk/socceraid/

Thursday June 8th - Sunday June 11th - Dublin and see Robbie Williams Concert

Friday 16th June - Sunday 18th June - London to see my parents

Vienna


Venice



Rome



Florence


Switerland




Paris