Welcome to England...

After all our travelling we were ready to settle down and catch our breath. We were met at the airport by Amy's Dad (yep - that's right - he's a Kiwi). John and his wife, Marianne, have been living and working in England for over a year now, having a parents OE/GAP! We spent a few days with them in the beautiful historical town of Oxford before heading up north to spend time with James' family. It was lovely to see friends and family who we hadn't seen for over 4 years and a good excuse for some social catching up. Our first priority was to find work and help pay for some of the travel we've done. We both signed up to Teaching Supply Work (James as a teacher aid) and as we'd already got our police checks done, Amy got straight into teaching at a couple of schools in Hull. Loved it - not too different from teaching in NZ and the everyone was fascinated by the accent. The Hull accent is quite, err, how would we describe it, 'northern', so a teacher aid had to translate a few words, like "don't" to "doughn't" and "Sophie" to "Sooophie"! James didn't have any luck finding work in the first few weeks, but was kept busy sorting out his old room, applying for jobs, and preparing for Ian's Stag and the Best Man's Speech. Also had a chance to catch up with some of James' old school friends, with a Facebook organised Reunion out on the town. Nobody looked too different to they did as 16 year olds - and it was so lovely to see what people are making of their lives - even though everyone is now 30! May the good times role on...