Big catch up

We've been thinking of some ways to make this blog more interesting and so from here on were going to include book/movie/gig/tourist spot reviews...a little heads up on what we have found to be handy and well worth it and then the not so flash.
So here's a summary of what we've been up to...

We have just arrived in Bath...Where we'll do our second 'workaway' stint.
Before now we have been in Normandy living in a 15th century farm house doing some extreme gardening! While we were there we went to visit one of the WW2 landing beaches(Aromanche-very moving-9/10), we also did a sweet canoe trip and drank Normandy cider and calvados(disgusting- 2/10). Over all, a pretty sweet two weeks.

From there we traveled south to Rennes and stayed at a rather swish hotel which gave us complimentary tea and coffee and biscuits daily, only had French TV though so our massive flat screen was ignored. It cost 50 euros a night for a double but was right opposite train station so saved heaps on travel (Kyriad Hotel-9/10).

From Rennes we did a day trip to St-Malo(10/10) was an epic pirate town fully surrounded by massive stone walls, it also had amazing islands to walk out to in low tide.

Mont St-Michel(10/10) was an EPIC 6th century Abbey on a rock surrounded by sea and flat plains, looked kinda like the Disney castle. Would highly recommend it.

We left the from the port of St Malo to Portsmouth(6 hour journey).
Andrew finished reading 'The Tea Rose' by Jennifer Donnelly, Elle's book she brought with her! Was very romantic, tragic, gripping, not a bad read but probably more suited to a female (7.5/10). We were very excited to be in an English speaking nation once again. Our first impression was the Portsmouth ferry terminal... packed to the rafters with old punters wearing gold chains and covered in tats, welcome to Britain! We took a train to Waterloo, London and an underground to Barrons court where we walked to Shannon Armstrongs flat. She welcomed us in with a cup of tea and had an air bed waiting for us. Our first day was great thanks to Shan, she showed us around and we sorted out bank accounts with the HSBC (7/10), bought a 10 quid phone (9/10), customer service at T-Mobile (0/10), wondered through Selfridges and Harrods (two luxury department stores with nothing that we can afford... yet!) before heading to Top Shop (also have a TopMan!) Primark (full on crazy, each man for themselves kinda store) and took a stroll through Hyde Park where we spotted a squirrel. Went to a Tescos "for our main shop, not our bits"! At a pub by the Thames that night, we had a few pints accompanied by a long awaited plate of bangers & mash and fish & chips... top notch! (10/10).

We filled the next couple of days with the necessary tourist activities. A hop-on, hop-off bus is definatly the way to go. We we're really keen to catch some comedy or live music that night but failed to find a thing! It's exhausting when you don't have a clue where to go, so it was off to the next pub we saw. But we have now signed up to a couple events/gig updates.. cannot wait to see some big acts! Spent an afternoon in Camden, entirely different town. (10/10). The whole area was one big market really, packed out with vintage shops, cheap as chips food stalls and the best shoe shops we've ever seen!

Caught up with a few of Andrew's friends (Jenny and Kate) from Wellington uni. Funny how we thought we'd get lost and not know a soul... it feels just like home! Tried the yummiest swiss pear cider that night too... Kopperberg (10/10).

Changinig of the guards was over rated... they make quite a big palaver out of something they do everyday and it was much too crowded. (3/10)

It is so very awesome to be where everything happens. Any band/musician you would ever want to see will, without a doubt, come here one day. We found out the other day that the All Blacks will be playing Scotland in November, in Edinburgh! I never really felt the urge to go see a game back home, but ever since coming here, New Zealand seems so much cooler. Cannot wait to go support the Kiwis!