A month earning the £££

We moved out the Manor and into an old Abbey in Laleham on the 4th of June. With large extensive grounds, including foxes, squirrels and pigeons and only 1 min walk to the Thames we couldn't have found a nicer spot. Below is the view from our kitchen window.

Our room is fairly interesting with binary numbers on one wall, Pi on another, Euler's constant on the third and the constant 'e' on the last.


The pic below is a view of the Thames just down from our house.

We also have a wee mole problem at the Abbey.

So we got a job delivering and putting up posters and brochure holders for a baggage shipping and storage company. For the first three weeks we targeted the universities in south/south east England. This turned out to be ideal for our situation as it meant we got a company car and petrol card and were basically paid to visit the different university towns. These included: Oxford, Cambridge, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Chichester, Brighton, Canterbury and of course central London.

Down at Folkestone we checked out the coast line and seaside action.

A cute little seaside town with a happy little river mouth.

The 11th centry castle at Arundel was grand!!!

We checked out the Brighton Pier and were intrigued by the large pebbly beach.

Back home, our mate Larry bought himself a small sailing boat, so we've been spending a bit of time trying our hand at a bit of gib sheeting. Ken also pulling his weight on the trapeze.

The Datchet sailing lake has the Windsor Castle silhouetted on the sky line.

On the 27th June we went to Toast NZ at Clapham Common. After bacon and eggs for breakfast at the Abbey, we stopped for champagne and strawberries on the grass.

Inside Toast we watched a polo game between NZ and England.

Then there was a bit of the old kiwi culture

The crowds grew and we found ourselves a great spot in amongst the action.

A few of the tastes from home were for sale including pies, mussels and oysters.

And to finish off the afternoon Dave Dobbyn cranked out a few tunes for the crowd.

A great time was had by all

So that was June. It looks like we have work at least for another month so we will update again after another month of fun and games.

Filling in Time Unemployed in the Month of May

We took up residence with our mate Larry in the "Manor of Englefield Green" for May and filled in our time looking for work and exploring the south/east of England. Just down the road from us was the majestic Windsor Castle and Great Windsor Park.

We spent many a day riding through the extensive park grounds in the sunshine.

An hour long trip into central London consisted of a bus ride, followed by a train ride and then a trip on the tube. We visited the local icons including, the Parliament buildings....

Big Ben.....

and the Tower Bridge.

Free entry into the Science Museum provided a day of learning. The transport, engineering, chemistry and physics and maths areas providing hours of interesting discoveries. Below Ken is checking out the frame of an old Boeing 737.

The "How Stuff Works" section had a cross section of a toilet showing it's operation.....

And a working example of a fridge.

We were introduced to the great concept of having a couple in the park with mates.

And we also experienced out first Guinness.

The local Royal Holloway University showed off its glorious structures in the sunshine and we made good use of the laundry room here after the Manor's facility saw the end its days.

Being unemployed meant we had time to bake a cake for Kens birthday.

But with four boys around it lasted less than 48 hours....

Another trip into town, we visited the free British Museum. Below is the Rosetta Stone, in scripted in hieroglyphics, demotic (the native script used for daily purposes), and Greek. This stone enabled scholars to decipher the hieroglyphics after the end of the fourth century AD, when hieroglyphs had gone out of use and the knowledge of how to read and write them disappeared.

We also learnt how a clock works with the mechanics of working examples on display.

After the 'short term contract engineering' scene proved to be non-existing with the current financial status of the world, we started to apply for live-in jobs. After an interview at a £25 million mansion near Bournemouth, we took advance of our travel situation and checked out the local English country side.

The beaches were more impressive than we expected and....

We had our first and last English fish'n'chip experience... Yuck!!!

A camping trip to Cornwall with a group of friends allowed us to check out more English country sides and cute little English villages.


They also had crazy gigantic leaves.

The beaches proved to be very nice and we managed to sort some great sunny weather for the long weekend. Unfortunately the water was a little too chilly for swimming.

At Land's End (the most south western part of England), we found great coast lines with magnificent views.

However, once again the water proved too cold for swimming, so to entertain ones self I constructed a track including a bridge, jump, tunnel and luge for the pin pong balls.

Balls in action

Camping isn't camping without a bit of back yard cricket.

But all good things do come to an end.

The sunset at Land's End, while chilly, was worth the trip.

and a few songs round the campfire brought the close of a great day.

On the way home we drove past Stone Henge. Thanks to the zoom lens we were able to take a token picture from the road side, avoiding the £3 for parking and £6 for entry. A cost we couldn't justify as the unwaged.

Back at the "Manor" there were many fun and games. Here the boys are bringing up the dinner with the tea trolley.

Our second interview took us to Wembley. An impressive looking stadium from the outside.

I was, and am still, impressed with the amount of green parks in London. The atmosphere in Hyde park was lovely for lounging around in the sunshine.

Although the deck chairs and bikinis in the middle of town... miles from the beach, were a bit confusing.

The view of the Thames at Richmond couldnt have be more pleasing as I waited for a friend to have a few drinks riverside one evening.

We managed to fit in a few rounds of golf at Hanger Hill golf course just 7 miles from london central.

Back at the Manor, Ken played chef in the industrial kitchen.

While I drunk super sized stouts in the sunshine.

And we made sure took advantage of the great weather and bbq when ever we could.

Our interview at Wembley proved to be successful and on the 2nd of June we were brought back to the real world and commensed work as a Marketing Delivery team.