What’s been going on…the diary….
February 1st, 2001
Well, we just got back from Genoa, and now we're trying to get the site updated -- we took so many pictures this page could take a while. We actually didn't go to Genoa, but some small villages just east of there called Cinque Terre (literally 5 earths). You can hike between the villages and the scenery is breathtaking. Thankfully, we had good weather the whole time and it was a shock to get back here and find the weather forecasters calling for snow! None has shown up yet....
Things are generally good here. Friedel's quite busy with uni, as always, but doing more interesting things this term (television!!) and putting together internet radio programs. We'll pass the address on when we know it. We're also going to try and put some audio up on the site, so you can listen to some of the reports she's done. We'll see how that goes.
And it looks as if we'll get some curling in before the winter's out. Andrew has hooked up with some Scots and we're going to a place just outside of Glasgow around the first of March for a funspiel. Thanks to Andrew's dad, our equipment is on the way over here. It should be good fun, although we find it funny that you have to go so far to curl around here.
January 14th, 2001
What a great and busy Christmas we had! There were four people staying with us over the holidays and around a dozen for Christmas dinner! Thankfully we had lots of help from our friends when it came to cooking Christmas dinner.
Friedel's been interning with the Financial Times in their radio section, and she even got a job offer for June. But the pay's not great so she'll probably keep looking for a while yet.
And we've planned two big trips since Christmas -- one to Genoa for a weekend on the 26th of January (those seat sales are too good to resist). The other is to Athens for a week in April. It's a place we've always wanted to go to and we're quite excited about it all.
Other than that there's not too much to tell. The weather has been cold for London, but still not bad by Canadian standards. We even had some snow on boxing day but it only stayed a couple of days. And the grass is still green so we can't complain too much.
December 17th, 2000
Here's your monthly update. The trip to France was great. After so much cold, grey weather in England it was nice to see the sun for a few days, as well as to have a small break. Even though Friedel is now done school until the end of January, she is doing two internships so that is keeping her busy. And both of us are busy planning for friends that will be coming to visit next week. We'll have four friends over for the whole Christmas period and as many as 12 for Christmas dinner.
For the next few weeks we are housesitting in St. Katharine's Dock at the home of the triplets. It's nice to have our own place for a while and will be a great place to spend Christmas in. It's so close to the city that both of us can walk to work.
Look for more on this page after the New Year -- there are so many things we could put up but no time to do it in.
Love, and Merry Christmas to all of you!
November 11th, 2000
Well, so much for updating every week! Today we were in Northern France, doing a tour of the war sites in the region. We saw Vimy Ridge, Ypres and many other small sites. Even though we only spend one day there, what we saw was certainly memorable. It makes you very happy to be living in peace and to be Canadian.
This week Friedel arranged her internships for Christmas. She'll be doing one week at FT.com, studying web journalism, and 3 weeks at FT radio. FT radio is only a one man operation, but they do broadcast financial news across the UK and USA. And, they're hoping to expand next year so that's a good hope for a job in June.
Andrew's big news is his new cell phone, he's in love with it! Oh, and we have started getting the Sackville Trib here in London --a Christmas present from Douglas and Shirley. It helps keep us up to date on the happenings at home.
Today we also booked our next trip.....we will be going on the Eurostar to Marseille and spending a few days in Southern France in early December.
October 27th, 2000
Andrew went to a big conference this week for Apache. It was a great experience and Andrew got to meet several “founding fathers” of the computing world, something you’d only get a chance to do in a big city like London. FT was nice enough to pay all the costs of the program, hich is good since it costs £800 for three days, about $2000 canadian. FT is also sending him on some more training next week and maybe even more in the new year.
This week has been rather grey and blustery in London. Even though it’s not very cold here, it is somewhat depressing. At least in Canada you get the sun, here it rarely goes below zero (even in January) but a sunny day is a real rarity.
We are glad for one thing this week, and that is living close to work. There have been a number of rail crashes in the past weeks which has prompted a major review of the rails and almost every train is delayed or cancelled. All the hotels in London are full because people just can’t get home on the trains!
October 20th, 2000
Ok, so this is a bit of stretch trying to update several months in one go, but here is the basic summary to date (from here on in we’ll try and put an update on every week)
We moved over on the 25th of May and have quickly fallen in love with London. It is such an amazing city, there is never a dull moment. And it is all too easy to travel, with Europe being so close and tons of great flight deals at our doorsteps.
Not long after moving here Andrew got a job with the Financial Times as a programmer for FT.com. He really loves his job, and they are very good to him there.
Friedel is studying for her Masters of Journalism at City University in London. The program runs until next June with a thesis due in September.
There are no big plans at the moment, except a quick trip to France for Remembrance Day. We hope to visit Vimy Ridge and Arras and attend ceremonies on the 11th at one of those sites. As for Christmas we plan to spend it here in London, celebrating with a few friends who are also in Europe. We have no plans to return to Canada before next Christmas, when we will be coming home for the wedding of Tara and Malcom in Ontario. Of course we’ll be coming back to the Maritimes as well.