We Missed It

I hope you all enjoy the Melbourne Cup today, we wont be watching as it is on at about 5am here and we don't do 5am for anyone. Please email us with stories of the various parties and drinks you will all no doubt attend and even send in some photos and we'll put them up on the blog.

In other news I have taken some sneaky secret photos of my new workplace showing the desks and more, much more, importantly the tapped keg and TV area.

(2) The lunch area complete with tapped keg. Behind me is the plazma screen with PS2 and digital Sky with TiVo (no Xbox yet though)

The job's going really well and the team are great.

Finally a BIG Happy Birthday to my Pop in Foster. He turned 80 the other day and he can actually use the internet (even if he did send me 2 copies of the exact email yesterday).

Bye for now

15.2 Seconds of Fame

We are both SO tired after coming back from the filming of the Today show but you do get tired when YOU'VE BEEN ON CAMERA!

Not only were we on camera but those of you up early enough would have seen our INTERVIEW with Richard Wilkins!

(1) The venue(the Mulbury Bush) (2) Us with our sign

We went along about 3 hours early and Marg set us up with a great position to get on camera early on. We were waiting around and made our 'Hi Mum and Dad' sign and decided to add on 'We're Engaged!' for a shamless bit of attention grabbing, in the hope someone would notice and wave the camera our way.

(1) Dicky Arrives (2) the view of us from the stage

It sure worked as when the mighty Dicky arrived (to ruckus applause) he picked us out of the crowd to talk to us. We thought we would just stay where we were and he'd mention our names and show the sign but instead he took us onstage with 3 other couples to interviw us!

We had been standing around for a while before and made a few friends who all cheered madly when it was our turn to be on camera. As the camera rolled and Dicky did his intro we were getting really nervous about not saying anything stupid on camera (and Marg was freaking out there might be something in her teeth) - but it all went smoothly (we think).

(1) Us with Dicky right before the interview (2) The crowd right before the filming

He asked me how I proposed and said congratulations. He asked Marg if we were getting married back at home to which she replied yes (I think). Marg then proceeded to wave the ring at the camera and they did a close up!

I think we may have been on too early for everyone as we were in the first feed and it was 6:15 Aussie time. I wont mention that Dad was watching Koshie on channel 7 instead after having taped the show yesterday (God love you Dad).

Well we are truly knackered and need to hit the hay.

Marg's Grandma taped the event so send your mails and $19.95 plus postage and handling now for your copy ;)

Bye for now

Interactive Blog

Channel Nine is filming the Today Show live from London and want some of the 300,000 Aussies living here to pop down for a visit. We will be there from about 9pm on Thursday night (6am Friday Sydney time) and trying like mad to get in to the background of the show.

So if you can be bothered getting up that early switch on the telly to 9 and look out for the OS Adventurers first international live feed.

We'll be recording the event for a blog afterward with pics etc, presuming that the security doesn't think we're doing terrorist recon and apprehend us that is.

A Nice Walk Then, Reality

Again in an effort to continue fighting the Heathrow injection (and because I am becoming the surrogate Irene for Marg's Sunday walks with Mum) we headed down the road to Putney for a look at the Thames and the mysterious Argos.

The day started beautifully but by the time we dragged our sorry butts outside it was already clouding over (What? In London? You say). We popped our currently dirt poor heads into some shops for a spot of window shopping and I think we had already spent my first pay cheque before I had even earned it.

Today saw me head in for my first day of work in months and let me tell you it's like they had started piling work up for me as soon as I left Australia. The offices are really nice (I'll try and sneak a spy cam shot into the blog soon) and the people are great. I just have to teach them a thing or two about webwork, but that is why they hired me!

--- OTHER NEWS ---

The great TOM AKA Llupa has just released his new website at www.llupa.com. Head over and listen to his music and generally enjoy his creativity.

Ok time to hit the hay.

Bye for now

Story of a Working Man!

I have now got a JOB! Woo Hoo!

Can anybody say "CHEESE"

I start work on Monday for a marketing agency in the center of London called Blue Moon.

I had two interviews with them, the last on Tuesday, and they must have been impressed enough (or the other candidates were crappy enough) to offer me the role today.

I'll be "The Web Guy" for a the company who is looking to expand it's online offering and part of my role will be to do just that. I'll be working with the studio team so I meet my goal of working in design again and the other guys seem like nice people.

I promise to keep the blog updated even though I'm not a kept man anymore and Marg may even just make the odd guest appearance as well ;)

Well we'll be hitting the bevies tonight in celebration then I just have to try to remember what web design actually is...

Bye for now

Dinner with Friends

Mr Fairley sporting a stylish 3 day growth and me who just hasn't shaved for 3 days

As we seem to be doing every couple of nights, last night we caught up with friends. Not just any friends though, it was one of my very best friends Mr Fairley (Andrew) and his girlfriend Tanya. I must say I never thought we'd be catching up for a drink and some dinner in London, especially as he almost takes pride in having only been out of New South Wales a couple of times in his life up to now, let alone out of the hemisphere!

(1) Fairley looking a bit like a stunned mullet in this one (2) That's better, smile

The guys were in London for one night only on on their way for a whirlwind tour of Europe with Contiki Tours. It's going to be a bit crazy for them as they are a couple of the oldest ones on the trip (at an ancient 24 and 27ish) and most of the others are young girls around 19 (Poor Fairley ;).

We had a great Mexican meal (as you do in London) and a baileys coffee afterwards. It was really great to see them again and it was just like old times.

It did kind of make me a bit homesick catching up with one of my oldest mates but it also made the world seem a little bit smaller which is good. Kane, Ryan, Wazza you guys are up next!

Bye for now

PS
Last week we had 144 different visitors to the site! WOW I didn't think we knew 144 different people!

8 Years Old Again

Yesterday Margie and I decided to go for a walk to Kensington Park. It's sort of close to us and was going to be a good bit of exercise. What we had forgotten however is that there was a Chelsea home game on and thus there were literally thousands of mad Chelsea supporters heading in the same direction as we were. We'll get some photos of the next home game, it has to be seen to be believed. There are hundreds of police, even a whole mounted division.

Once we got through the throng of blue shirted madmen we realised that the British Natural History Museum was on the way to Kensington Park and when we saw they had a Diamond exhibition and a Dinosaur exhibition we were sold and went straight in.

As we walked in we were met by the massive skeleton of a Diplidocus and this is when I became an 8 year old again. We had to head straight for the dinosaur exhibition and read every plaque. I was amazed at how much I remembered from my "Dinosaurs an Illustrated history" book that I've had since I was 7 and was even more amazed to see all the dinosaurs and dinosaur bits from the book in person (the book was published in England so used all the exhibits from the British Natural History Museum as reference).

It was a lovely day and the walk home afterwards was rather pleasant with only the odd drunken fan wandering around singing.

That evening all the flatmates (minus Melinda) headed out to see Lord of War, It's a really great flick see it if you get the chance.

More soon...

A Quick Coffee with Craig and Claudia

Wednesday night saw us meeting up with Craig and Claudia for a quick coffee in Covent Gardens. Craig is one of Mikey's oldest friends and Claudia is his lovely wife.

They are in town for a few days on their way home to Aus after spending a month in New York with our man Mikey.They had a great time there and by all accounts Mikey is doing brilliantly now with no less than 3 jobs.

It was a nice catch up with the guys, Marg and Claudia spent the whole time talking rings, weddings and babies. Needless to say, Craig and I just fidgeted and coughed nervously while all this talk was going on.

We had to make the coffee a quick one as, firstly I had an interview the next day and secondly, they decided to kick everyone out of the cafe at 8.

Thanks for a nice catch up guys hope we can do it again soon.

Next up is Mr Fairley and Tanya on Sunday.
Bye for now

Welcome Damien

Last night we welcomed Damien to the house with a special dinner of spaghetti bolognese. They don't seem to sell tomato paste anywhere so we had to make do, but it turned out OK in the end.

Damien is the newest member of the house here at 5 Cassidy Road. He's a Kiwi though no one holds that against him ;) and he's a top bloke.

So welcome to the house mate.

(1) Left to right: Marg, Damien & Wes (2) Grigoria & Wes

We had a great night and laughed over a few wines, Grigoria came along as well to enjoy the food and company.

Shameless Self Promotion

**UPDATE** 3:00pm Wednesday

Within 1 day of putting up the new website and sending out the new resume I received 3 calls and have 2 interviews for this week. The first came within an hour!

Clearly there was something wrong with my old resume and website ;)
----------

So I've been activly looking for work for the past month and a bit as you all pretty much know (in between hanging out with everyone who has been appearing on the blog of course).

I haven't been siting around with my thumb stuck somewhere uncomfortable though, I have just finished version 1.5 of my personal website and I though I would share it with everyone .
Version 1 has been up for about a 2 weeks already and this is a big improvement if you are interested see the comments in the [nerd] brackets below ;)

Click HERE to see www.cassidyroad.eclipse.co.uk

I have created a personal logo to go along with it also as you may have noted above.

Hopefully all of this shameless self promotion should help me get that design job I've been looking for.

Bye for now

[nerd]
This is mainly for the IT boys & girls out there I guess.
I have pretty much cracked most of the CSS Zen Garden code for how they do their funky layout stuff. I designed the site using DIV's and CSS to do all the layout which was a challenge but good fun to learn and very handy to know. Next step is to get rid of the 1 table on the site and use some CSS image roleovers.
[/nerd]

From Portobello Road to Brixton

Saturday was another big day out with Tom and Jo. This was also the last day they would be spending in London before heading off to the beaches of Malaysia. :(

We wanted to make a big day of it and Marg has been dying to go to Portobello Road markets in Notting Hill so we killed a few birds with one rock. We all met up in Notting Hill early (well 9ish is early to us) and went to a local cafe for breaky. The breakfast place happened to be across the road from the famous Travel Bookshop from the film 'Notting Hill' so we ducked in for a sticky beak.

(1) Arriving in Portobello Road. (2) The Bookshop from the film.

We wandered around the markets until the crowd became unbearable Tom and Jo had to go and spend time with their family so Marg and I headed home for some lunch and a power nap. Whilst in the markets we did run into some people Marg knew from Australia, believe it or not, some very welcome others... not so.

(1) Tom posing. (2) Why we got there early.

Fast forward to about 7pm and We are heading to Brixton (South London) to Ratty's (AKA Andy) house for a low key farewell dinner.

Marg and I actually beat Tom and Jo there so Ratty and his lovely Girlfriend Jools took us to their 'front room' or 'the pub across the road' as it's also know. We met Tom and Jo on the stairs on the way down and all headed over for a quick pint.

Afterwards we were all pretty hungry so we decided we would order some food. We ordered from local Indian takeaway place and seemed to buy one of everything on the menu. The food was fantastic (the "Exceptionally Tasty Lentils" were particularly good) and the company was better. Ratty played us a couple of tracks from his band's record "Lummox" which I subsequently stole a copy of as it is fantastic. The band's name is 'Idiot Son' go buy the record here, you wont regret it.

Before we knew it, it was time for Marg and I to leave.

(1) Ratty & Jools in the agony of indecision. (2) What happens if you buy two of everything on the menu.

We had a great time with Tom and Jo visiting (as the blog will attest to) and we miss them already. Thanks for showing us such a great time guys and keep in touch!

We're going to miss them

Happy Birthday Beautiful Bella!

Happy Birthday Bella!

Hope you have a fabulous day, enjoy the Bathurst and gets lots of lovely pressies. We wish we could give you a big birthday hug and kiss xoxoxoxoxo

(1) Andy & Bella. (2) Our trip to Canowindra together.

Happy Birthday Eat Chuci!

A very Happy Birthday (if not a little late..) to Torie!

So sorry we did not say Happy Birthday on your actualy birthday - my bad.

Anywho, miss you and love you Eat Chuci!

BIG Sunday

Marg and I thought it might be good for a laugh if we went and watched the NRL grandfinal in a local pub at 9:30am on Sunday morning. te Pub's name is 'the Slug and Lettuce' and it's a good as it sounds.

We put on anything we owned that was black or orange and lined up at about 20 past 9.

We were surprised by how many people were there, once we were inside the place was packed with mad Aussies. There's something about drinking a few pints before 11am that makes the rest of the day kind of a blur.

We left the pub at about 11 and decided some lunch was in order so we headed to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen. These are good burgers. We had met up with Marg's friend Jo (not of Tom ad Jo fame but the Jo from the engagement party) and her boyfriend Luke in the pub and they joined us for lunch.

We then headed home to change as we were meeting Tom and Jo at another pub in Putney near the water called the Boathouse (where we had Marg's birthday party in August).

(2) Ratty helps me get a shot of Tom with his eyes open for a change

After a drink with Tom and Jo we then had to head back to the flat as it was also Blair's last day in the UK :(

We all headed back and enjoyed another quiet wine in the HUGE back yard of our house with Blair and Gregoria as he prepared to leave.
August.

The time came for the taxi and with a hug and a tear Blair was gone. I know you'll be reading this so thanks for everything mate and I hope NZ treats you well, we miss you already.

The day wasn't over then either as Tom and I needed dinner by this stage so we headed out and accidentally ended up at yet another pub, oops.

Needless to say we'll be taking it a bit easier from now on as this weekend was big enough to last for the next while.

TMD Catchup #487 - Kev & Pete

Friday night saw us head out to Wimbledon to a bar called 'All Bar One' to meet up with Kevin and Pete (the head honchos of TMD).

They were meeting up with friends and family on the London leg of their world tour (Chicago - London - Singapore - Sydney). The venue was great as was the company. We all had a great time swapping stories from the past 4 months and enjoying a drink or two.

Marg and I got to meet Pete's son Mark and his girlfriend who we got on with quite well. They are seasoned travelers having been here more than a year and gave us a few tips. We all tried not to talk about the cricket.

It was great seeing the guys and meeting their family and friends.