From left to right we have:

Dan, Alex Sutherland, Frances, Sylvia, Fabrice, Temi, Richard Maxwell, Arnaud and Mathieu

Taken in the Chatham docklands AMP building lunchroom. Mmmm, chips.

Taken at the Millwall inner dock, with a background of Canada one, and friends.

Pretty Cherry Blossom in the Isle of Dogs, London.

“The only interesting travel stories, are ones of disaster”

General BORING ramblings

Ok. Geri and I are still living in the docklands. We went to some of Geri’s old friends from NZ in Woodhill Spa (Near Lincoln). Nice 50+ town, and has a PGA golf course there. Bought some socks, and Geri got some slippers. Got trollied on 3xPints of Home Brew, 4 Bottles of Wine and 3 Wiskeys. Got a Hangover on Sunday.

Oh Yea, I Found out I still like playing the panio. I also remineded myself that I never actually learnt how to read music (I read each note, memorise it, then learn the turn bar by bar)

Whoops, where are My Manners. Geri’s Friends are Hans and Jean, they moved to the UK to be with Jean’s Family eight years ago.

Yea, Jean and Hans have a panio. I was told to stop playing cos it gave everyone a headache (except Hans, cos he doesn’t get headaches…or hangoevers…barstard!

Ho Hum, another Tube strike in London, Luckly for me the DLR (docklands light rail) isn’t effected as much, and If I get up half an hour eariler I can take an alternative route to Work skipping out the tube all together (go via Lewisham). So yay, had to get up at 6:30am HOOO FUCKING RAY!

Ok, work stuff. Ive been spending my spare time working on my web site (as you might have seen). The Managment here is COMPLETE PANTS! I mean, GOD, were been told information which we should have been told when we started (oops, in we I mean Alex, my Workmate, and I), four months ago!

Its taken Alex (Essex boy, funny, like a cross between dunken and craig. Sailor boy too. Its nice to be able to tell rottern jokes again). Whoops, bad grammer. lets start again.

Its taken Alex 4 weeks to get his contract so he can work in France cos work here is closing today. Where does that leave me? You know as much as I do. they are soooo unorganised.

Actually, the Boss here is seeing about my work permit for France. Yup. They want me to finish my contract in Cergy, France (1 Hour RER out of central Paris). But My recent exposier to there ineffecient management structure (extreamly hiracharical) has given me second thoughts (that and the fact that my flatmate has got a job doing computer stuff at 12.80 pounds / hour)

Geri went to the Library yesterday and rented some CDs. YAY! Catatonia, Tori Amos, and the Carpenters. She also made the yummiest tikka masala.

Er, yea. Cool, we are living in London, however we still have to shop, shit, shower and shave don’t we.

Added Bonus

WOOP! Geri and I are using a Eurostar deal (50 pounds return to Brussles each) to goto Belgium and the Netherlands from the 27th of April to the 4th of March. We are going to Visit Three Friends we meet on the Camino (Stijn from Ghent, and Dini and Nieska from Amsterdam – Sorry If I spelt your name wrong Nieska). As well as going to the flower festivals and seeing some windmills.

Yawn

I still have my notes for my trip to Italy, so I suppose Ill see if I can write that up soon. Otherwise Visit my website twice a month to see whats up.

http://monkey.freeshell.org/ [editor: no longer exists]

-Richard Maxwell

p.s. Since my brother is changing internet companies in NZ, my old website will be dissappearing soon. But don’t worry, all the stuff has already been moved to http://monkey.freeshell.org/ [editor: no longer exists]

old website: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~maxwells/OE/ [editor: no longer exists]

P.p.s All my mass emails will be available on my new website (that is, when I put in the ability to retrieve them)

Not much exciting and new to tell. The weather here is still odd. We have nice sunny days and then rainy cloudy ones. The temperature gets warmer and then it gets very cold again. We even had snow this week. It must have snowed about 10 times over this winter, that i noticed. So HA to all those who said it doesn’t snow in London. You just have to look out for it. Customers and fellow staff think I’m strange when I run otside all of a sudden and stand there with my mouth open. (trying to catch snowflakes on my tongue). everyone has a good laugh.

Tonight Richard and I are going up to Lincoln for the weekend to stay with some family friends that I haven’t seen since I was sixteen (am 24 on 15 May for those of you who have forgotten).

Well a week and a half has passed since I started this letter. Our time in Lincoln was great. I felt very emotional and happy to see Jean and Hans again. We had a very relaxing weekend and the little village they live in is very pretty and peaceful. The train journey took about two hours, and was horrible on the way up. We got to the train station at 6:12pm to catch the 6:30 I asked Richard to look at the tickets to see exactly which train we were to go on. ‘What’s six ten doing on here?’ ‘WHAT?’ I replied. We’d got our times mixed up, or at least someone did, whether it was the person issuing them or us, not sure. Anyway, according to me at the time it was Richard’s fault. So.. we had to go and join the back of a very long cue to buy tickets. Richard joined one cue, I joined the other. Well we got our tickets changed to 6:30 at about 6;28, ran for the train, went to the end thinking there would be more spare seats. People were standing all squished near the door. The train started it’s journey and we discovered we were in the smoking car and had to stand for about 1 1/2 hours. We eventually got a seat in the non smoking compartment.

Licoln has a huge cathedral on the hill, which was lit up when we arrived. Jean and Hans met us on the platform and we all shared in a great big hug, except for Richard whom had never met them.

They live in a place called Woodhall Spa, which is about half an hours drive from Lincoln. A pretty place, with daffodils lining the road and lots of green space. ( is really a small village in the country).

On the Saturday we got taken for a nice drive around Woodhall Spa and a nearby village where we visited the market. I bought a pair of cheap slippers, some lemons to have with my hot water, and Richard bought socks (always putting his toes through them
Jeans daughter Lynne and her man Jim came over for drinks and dinner, and a very merry evening was had, so much we needed the next day to recover. For the whole weekend Richard spent every other spare minute giving everyone headaches and store stomachs by trying to play the piano. At least he was trying, and much hassling was done in good humour.

All in all, we had a great weekend and were both sad to say goodbye. We did however, leave with the good intention of visiting again sometime soon, which makes it so much easier.

At the moment Richard and I are planning our trip to Belgium and the Netherlands. A 10 day trip in total, probably 5 days in each country.

This weekend my Aunty is coming over from New Zealand, so we have got her to look forward to. 2 weeks in London, so hopefully we’ll get to go out and visit quite a bit. Some goodies are being sent over from home which i am also looking forward to. It will be nice to have some different items to wear etc.

Well not much else to tell. I better go, my lunch break is over and this has already taken me too long to write. Will have to get back to answering and sending some of those personal emails.

My love to all of you, all over the world, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Geraldine

Somewhere in Regents Park there is a Pelican. We have photographics proof!

Francine and Geraldine Mora posing infront of London’s famous Bridge.

Hans, Jean, Geraldine Mora and Richard Maxwell are the Woodhill Spa Bunch

Richard Maxwell, John and Michael Crestanello finding intereseting ways of wading across the flooded path next to the river Isis, on a ramble around the Oxford countryside.

The Arch is made completly of Marble. Thats alot of marble, and Geri is standing under it all.