Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Pictures of Tys in London
Here are some pictures of Tyson and Kate at a couple of famous sites in London but there are lots more photos at this site:
http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f205/tysoncollins/London%20March%202006/?start=0
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Tys has a job already!!
Just dropping you a quick line to let you know that I was offered that job this morning so obviously I accepted it. I might try and ask for a few months leave without pay, so I'll work hard for the next 3 months so they will want me back !!!
I start Monday and my first week is 8am - 8pm, it's pretty intense he reckons, it's all training, in a class room environment mostly, but we'll be in the field a bit, and at the end of each day we have to sit an exam and have to pass. Should be easy I reckon, but that first week is going to kill me, especially seeing as I haven't worked an 8 hour day in a year let alone a 12 hour one! I'm glad I got it though, bit of a relief, now that I'm earning pound things will be a lot easier!
(Graham adds that he has spoken to Tys since this news, and he has to have a haircut. They must be pretty strict with the dress rules, because if you remember his hair was short anyway. )
I start Monday and my first week is 8am - 8pm, it's pretty intense he reckons, it's all training, in a class room environment mostly, but we'll be in the field a bit, and at the end of each day we have to sit an exam and have to pass. Should be easy I reckon, but that first week is going to kill me, especially seeing as I haven't worked an 8 hour day in a year let alone a 12 hour one! I'm glad I got it though, bit of a relief, now that I'm earning pound things will be a lot easier!
(Graham adds that he has spoken to Tys since this news, and he has to have a haircut. They must be pretty strict with the dress rules, because if you remember his hair was short anyway. )
Learning the ropes in London.
Went out Friday night with all Kate's friends to some bar in Notting Hill. Met all of them, they're nice, I only had about 6 pints, but I was drinking this beer, can't remember what it was called, but apparently it's 7%alcohol or something. Saturday morning me, Louse and Kate went to Portobello Rd, the Notting Hill market, like in the movie, and we walked around there and checked out the stalls and all that stuff. Then Saturday night Louse wanted to show me how to live like a King on a very small budget in London. First we brought dinner, a frozen pizza for 99p, then we got a pounds worth of chips to accompany that. Pretty filling meal. He took me to a off licence grocer who sells 7 Kronenburgs (French beer, really nice, 5%) 500ml cans for
£4.65. We ate and drank at his house, and he also had a bottle of JD we were drinking. Then we all went out for Tommy's girlfriends birthday. On the way Louse took me to the same grocer and brought a 350ml of Bacradi for £7 so we could buy cokes out and fill it with Bacardi. For the first few anyway. So we were full, and pretty wrecked off about £7 each, which is ridiculous! So I learnt a couple of tricks of the trade which was good. Anyway, that was a big night, Sunday just went for a run and did all our food shopping. I went to Louses at 4 and watched the Tottenham game. My team won 3-2 and it was a pretty awesome game actually. Monday me and Kate had interviews with agents in the city. Mine went well, but they're more into Temp jobs, which is fine, so I might get something through them. We went to Covent Garden after that where there is this Aussie
shop that sells Aussie food that you can't get here. Mint Patties, twisties, etc. It's Louses birthday today so we went there to get a couple of boxes of BBQ shapes and Pizza shapes. His favourite. He's going to love em.
Yesterday, me and Kate went to Abbey Rd, and pretended we were a Beatle for a minute. It was funny, cos we had heard stories of how it's really hard to find the exact crossing cos there's a few, and there is no signage anyway, so we called Louse when we were there, and asked a few people and found the right one. It's a real busy road, so cars were getting annoyed with us stopping traffic to get pics. But luckily we got a couple of alright ones. Then after that we went for a tour of Lord's Cricket Ground. Probably Kate's most boring 2 hours but I loved it. We got to go into the pavilion, and the dressing rooms, and I got to stand on that famous balcony where the Aussie team in particular Shane Warne danced and celebrated after winning the 99 World Cup. Got some awesome pics I'll send home soon. One thing I didn't know about the ground is that it's on a massive slope. One side of the ground is 2.5m higher than the other. It looks hilarious. After that we came home and I had an interview with a company called Foxtons. The UK's biggest Real Estate Agents. A guy Louse is living with gave me a managers number there cos he heard they had vacancies in some areas. I called him and we went through my history etc, and he told me to come in. So I went last night, there were 40 of us going for different positions. We had heaps of group interviews and short one on one interviews. Took 2 hours. It's a place Carly would love to work, their offices are really retro, they look like cafe's, they have punching bags all around the office, bikes, big plasma screens, it's so cool, and the money is ridiculous. Anyway found out today that I have been short listed and the directors will make a choice tonight and let me know tomorrow. I won't go into the job unless I get it, but it's £22k for the first 2 months and then anything up to £40k pro rata after that. If I was going to be hear for years, that's the place I'd want to work. Going out tonight for Louses birthday and tomorrow night me and Kate are meeting her cousins out for a drink, and then Scott and Jade are coming over early Friday morning till Sunday night, so it's going to be another BIG
weekend. But the highlight of my week was looking through the TV guide and seeing that on Monday nights at 10pm Prison Break is on. And it's up to the same episode as Melbourne. So I watched this weeks. It was awesome. Oh yeah, I saw Coral (I think that was her name), off the last series of the Apprentice. Pretty funny.
£4.65. We ate and drank at his house, and he also had a bottle of JD we were drinking. Then we all went out for Tommy's girlfriends birthday. On the way Louse took me to the same grocer and brought a 350ml of Bacradi for £7 so we could buy cokes out and fill it with Bacardi. For the first few anyway. So we were full, and pretty wrecked off about £7 each, which is ridiculous! So I learnt a couple of tricks of the trade which was good. Anyway, that was a big night, Sunday just went for a run and did all our food shopping. I went to Louses at 4 and watched the Tottenham game. My team won 3-2 and it was a pretty awesome game actually. Monday me and Kate had interviews with agents in the city. Mine went well, but they're more into Temp jobs, which is fine, so I might get something through them. We went to Covent Garden after that where there is this Aussie
shop that sells Aussie food that you can't get here. Mint Patties, twisties, etc. It's Louses birthday today so we went there to get a couple of boxes of BBQ shapes and Pizza shapes. His favourite. He's going to love em.
Yesterday, me and Kate went to Abbey Rd, and pretended we were a Beatle for a minute. It was funny, cos we had heard stories of how it's really hard to find the exact crossing cos there's a few, and there is no signage anyway, so we called Louse when we were there, and asked a few people and found the right one. It's a real busy road, so cars were getting annoyed with us stopping traffic to get pics. But luckily we got a couple of alright ones. Then after that we went for a tour of Lord's Cricket Ground. Probably Kate's most boring 2 hours but I loved it. We got to go into the pavilion, and the dressing rooms, and I got to stand on that famous balcony where the Aussie team in particular Shane Warne danced and celebrated after winning the 99 World Cup. Got some awesome pics I'll send home soon. One thing I didn't know about the ground is that it's on a massive slope. One side of the ground is 2.5m higher than the other. It looks hilarious. After that we came home and I had an interview with a company called Foxtons. The UK's biggest Real Estate Agents. A guy Louse is living with gave me a managers number there cos he heard they had vacancies in some areas. I called him and we went through my history etc, and he told me to come in. So I went last night, there were 40 of us going for different positions. We had heaps of group interviews and short one on one interviews. Took 2 hours. It's a place Carly would love to work, their offices are really retro, they look like cafe's, they have punching bags all around the office, bikes, big plasma screens, it's so cool, and the money is ridiculous. Anyway found out today that I have been short listed and the directors will make a choice tonight and let me know tomorrow. I won't go into the job unless I get it, but it's £22k for the first 2 months and then anything up to £40k pro rata after that. If I was going to be hear for years, that's the place I'd want to work. Going out tonight for Louses birthday and tomorrow night me and Kate are meeting her cousins out for a drink, and then Scott and Jade are coming over early Friday morning till Sunday night, so it's going to be another BIG
weekend. But the highlight of my week was looking through the TV guide and seeing that on Monday nights at 10pm Prison Break is on. And it's up to the same episode as Melbourne. So I watched this weeks. It was awesome. Oh yeah, I saw Coral (I think that was her name), off the last series of the Apprentice. Pretty funny.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Arriving in London
Hi all, at an internet cafe and thought I'd drop you a quick line to let you know what's been happening in my first couple of days.
My first night I went out with Kate, Louse, Mandy, Knighter, Tommy Bayford, and two of Louse and Amanda's friends. We went to the local and started smashing the pints. Only like £3 for a pint, so after about 6 the place was closing and me, Louse and Tommy kicked on and found one of the only pubs open at the time without heading into the city, and we managed 1 more pint before that place closed. Went home after that, Louse came back to mine to make sure I didn't get lost. After talking to him for a bit and watching him trip over the stairs out the front about 3 times, I went to bed and was out in a matter of seconds. Can't remember much of the night, got pretty wrecked, and the next day I was thinking, geez, that was a pretty weak effort by me, only 7 pints and I feel sick, but luckily Louse told me he chucked up twice that day, had to leave work early and came home and slept for 3 hours. The beer was strong beer, and we had heaps of cider as well.
So in the spirit of things I spent my first day in London seedy as, nursing a terrible hangover. Got an oyster card in the morning (public transport card), a sim card for my phone. Then I went to Regent Street and activated my bank account. Opened another savings account and got a credit card while I was there. Then I exchanged all the Australian money I had on me for pounds. Kate took me to Piccadilly Circus, then we had lunch at Covent Garden which was really nice. After that, went to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. Swung by the Houses of Parliament, then headed back to Hammersmith to do our shopping. The supermarkets here are crap, we went to a massive one, one of the biggest and the variety is terrible. Anyway we did our shopping for the week which cost £60, and then finally went home. We were so wrecked, we were asleep by 9:30pm.
The Oyster Cards are so worth it, I caught about 7 trains and 3 buses yesterday. You never have to wait more than 2 mins for a bus or train, that's a good thing about this place. It snowed yesterday afternoon which was pretty cool. Today is -2degrees, but the sun is out and there's not a cloud in the sky so it's pretty nice. After this we are going for lunch in Hyde Park, then going to St Pauls Cathedral and a few other sites.
Have been running along the Thames River every morning and afternnon, about a 4km run, it's really nice. Me and Kate are going to the gym this arvo, we got a free pass cos we enquired the other morning, and have decided to join up as a member this arvo as well. £57 a month, which is like $140, but it's just around the corner, has a pool, all classes are included and after 3 months there's no obligation to stay so it's perfect for what we're looking for.
(If you want to send an email to Tys, send it to the collinsplus address for privacy and Aunty Barb will pass it on: admin@collinsplus.com
My first night I went out with Kate, Louse, Mandy, Knighter, Tommy Bayford, and two of Louse and Amanda's friends. We went to the local and started smashing the pints. Only like £3 for a pint, so after about 6 the place was closing and me, Louse and Tommy kicked on and found one of the only pubs open at the time without heading into the city, and we managed 1 more pint before that place closed. Went home after that, Louse came back to mine to make sure I didn't get lost. After talking to him for a bit and watching him trip over the stairs out the front about 3 times, I went to bed and was out in a matter of seconds. Can't remember much of the night, got pretty wrecked, and the next day I was thinking, geez, that was a pretty weak effort by me, only 7 pints and I feel sick, but luckily Louse told me he chucked up twice that day, had to leave work early and came home and slept for 3 hours. The beer was strong beer, and we had heaps of cider as well.
So in the spirit of things I spent my first day in London seedy as, nursing a terrible hangover. Got an oyster card in the morning (public transport card), a sim card for my phone. Then I went to Regent Street and activated my bank account. Opened another savings account and got a credit card while I was there. Then I exchanged all the Australian money I had on me for pounds. Kate took me to Piccadilly Circus, then we had lunch at Covent Garden which was really nice. After that, went to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. Swung by the Houses of Parliament, then headed back to Hammersmith to do our shopping. The supermarkets here are crap, we went to a massive one, one of the biggest and the variety is terrible. Anyway we did our shopping for the week which cost £60, and then finally went home. We were so wrecked, we were asleep by 9:30pm.
The Oyster Cards are so worth it, I caught about 7 trains and 3 buses yesterday. You never have to wait more than 2 mins for a bus or train, that's a good thing about this place. It snowed yesterday afternoon which was pretty cool. Today is -2degrees, but the sun is out and there's not a cloud in the sky so it's pretty nice. After this we are going for lunch in Hyde Park, then going to St Pauls Cathedral and a few other sites.
Have been running along the Thames River every morning and afternnon, about a 4km run, it's really nice. Me and Kate are going to the gym this arvo, we got a free pass cos we enquired the other morning, and have decided to join up as a member this arvo as well. £57 a month, which is like $140, but it's just around the corner, has a pool, all classes are included and after 3 months there's no obligation to stay so it's perfect for what we're looking for.
(If you want to send an email to Tys, send it to the collinsplus address for privacy and Aunty Barb will pass it on: admin@collinsplus.com
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Farewell Tys
Here is Tys at his family's farewell BBQ just before he left for the airport. The backpack was so crammed full that NOTHING else could be added. Below is a picture of Tys and brother, Darcy, enjoying some of his grandmother Georgette's home made pavlova. Something to remind him of home while he is far away from family? 
And here are Tys and kate taking off on their year long adventure overseas - leaving Australia the from international airport in Melbourne.
