Jan 2007

After a fun but quiet NYE in London with Kellie and Adam, Katherine and Mike and their Aunt and Uncle, we went back to Sam and Zoe's house in Camden Town for a week of looking for work and seeing London.

It was a strange and funny week, we met with recruitment agencies one day, then the next day during a walk to the Tower of London we met 2 really funny and very resilient homeless guys (who would be homeless in London!!?) that we spent a couple of hours with, and the next day we took another walk to visit the Freud Museum - the house that Sigmund and Anna moved to when they came to England to escape Nazi reach.

Now we have come to Kent, to stay with Justin's cousin Rhys and his partner Nina, and things feel like they're falling into place a little bit. The beautiful guitar that we bought in Bangkok, that got damaged during our flight to England, is being fixed, and our packages from Vietnam with our presents (you'll get them one day, when we can afford to send them!) and our warm, and not-quite-right-looking, clothes that we had made for us have arrived, and we've seen Daniela to collect them, and Erin caught up with Christine and Sam, and we're feeling a little bit more connected to, and excited about, being in the UK.

Work is looking like a bit more of an issue - we have to get professional registration to get jobs that pay alright it seems, and we have to get hold of a few documents like degrees and birth certificates before we can apply, but it looks like a few registration options open to us. Erin can only work for a year with this visa, and to get a different one, has to earn a certain amount over a year. Justin though, with his UK citizenship (even though he's never been here before - so good/unfair) can take any job with any pay, so maybe we'll be on one income for a month or so while registrations process...!?

See our photos at: http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/England/London/?start=all

After spending a night with Zoe in London, it was hard to tell if confusion was due to jetlag or red wine. Regardless, we got it together to get ourselves back to Heathrow airport to meet up with Katherine's Mum Trish, and her partner Brian, to wait for Katherine to arrive from Perth! She was delayed because of fog too, but eventually she came through the gate with her eyes falling out of her head, and we headed "home" to Salisbury.

Now, we thought we were pretty lucky to have friends to be able to spend Xmas with, let alone STAY with over Xmas, but who would have imagined that we would be so fortunate as to spend Xmas with Katherine, staying with her and her family, in her mum's house, WHICH HAPPENS TO BE A 4-STAR B&B!!!

SO lucky!

And there were only 2 paying guests there - Tim and Diane, a lovely couple from Los Angeles, who knew the family from staying at their B&B on multiple occasions - so it was all very intimate and warm. And Katherine's brother Mike arrived from Queensland a couple of days after Katherine, surprising their mother into tears and shock (and shock that her kids were able to surprise her)!

So we spent our Xmas feeling part of a family, which with Brian's kids there, and Katherine's friends and Trishes friends, it was a big family! It was a Xmas with presents and a roast dinner and lots of wine - and games and dancing that followed the wine - and we even woke up to stockings filled with presents on Xmas morning!

Our Xmas in Salisbury carried right on until NYE... Thank you so much Trish and Brian, and Katherine and Mike, for making us so welcome!! xx

OUR XMAS PHOTOS ARE AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/England/Xmas/?start=all