Aaron's blog

Some of the stuff I bought

Goods are cheap in the US (e.g. basketball shoes for USD$9). Much cheaper than England

Little boy treks across the snow dusted Square

This felt like a Dickensien moment - cold, snow, and the lone figure of a small boy...

This pic shows more of the context - the Square really is quite grand

Tina in the snow

It snowed!

!!

visual illusions in spain

We had lots of fun creating these photos

with the help of the lovely Carolynn (fun personified).

Cinque terre

Cinque Terre

Some of the villages in Cinque Terre

Which car should I take??

Swiss travels

St Moritz

The best hotel room in St Moritz

UPA conference, then Vancouver

Tina wanted to come with me

This was a local town hall. somewhere in the middle of no where in the Colorado rocky mountains.

It was quite hard remembering what to do under different circumstances. e.g. if you meet a bear vs mountain lion thingy. do you run, walk, look up, down, etc. I guess these signs had limited effectiveness if people can't remember what to do...even when there is no danger

Rant

Warning

I'm trying not to be so negative but the UK government bodies are really useless in a lot of things. The systems are old, unresponsive and not user friendly.

I won't go into the details except to say that getting an NI Number (like a tax file number) is so painful. Getting the interview is really difficult. They have made this easier as you can now fill in a Word doc online, that you send in. They then send you time for an interview.

When you get there, they transcribe the printout of your word document onto a paper based form!

They were sposed to get back to me after 2 weeks. After waiting
2 months, and endlessly trying to call them to get an update (no answer), I finally got through to a department that could help.

I had attempted to call the place where I applied for the NI number, (using the phone number on the website and the application form) but found out the phone number was wrong (it just rung out). Emails resulted in no answer. The websites were not any help as they also had the wrong phone numbers and could not tell me who to call.

After weeks of fruitmess calling, I then tried to call HM Revenue and Customs - NI registration helpline (who told me that they had not received my application). They then gave me the right number for the place where I had orginally applied so I called them, then they said to call a place in Glasgow who finally admitted they sent the application to the wrong address.

They then asked me to physically go back to the original office I had applied to verify my address (which I refused to do since it's over an hour commute away). I told them that they had countless copies of my address already (rental agreement, bank statements, etc). I was then asked to fax a confirmation of my address (they didn't have email) before they can resend out the number (I refused to do this and asked to speak to the manager).

It's clear that they don't live in 2006.

Anyway, now I have an NI number. My friend said she it took her 3 years to bother getting one cause of similar issues.

Food highlights

One of the fun things is trying different foods. Although the microwave hamburgers in Amsterdam remained untested.

Riksmuseum

One of the famous museums in Amsterdam was the Riks. Since it is currently undergoing refurbishment, they put all their best stuff into a smaller exhibition space which was good for us. You see Dutch Masters such as Rembrandt, in a smaller space. Unfortunately, because of hte smaller space we missed out on seeing the Miffy exhibition. Yes, that's right - Miffy the rabbit (The artist was Dutch)

Beef cuts

Have you ever wondered where all the bits come from? I have. Now I know which part of the cow it is from, I just need someone to tell me which part I should use in different recipes....and what about pork? or lamb?

Tulips

I've never seen so many flowers in one place in my life. We visited Keukenhof with Mum Lee. It's about an hour's drive from Amsterdam and very pretty. Lots of people. Even more flowers (mostly tulips).

Mum managed to lose us as we were going too fast for her. Lucky she had our mobile phone. Even luckier that it had global roaming activated by default. Otherwise, she could still be wandering around a tulip garden

Bit sick and run down

We are recovering from sickness, having Tina's mum with us for two weeks, travelling to Paris and Amsterdam. Was kinda funny since we were like the parents and she was the child. We had previously decided on all the travel, how we would get there and some of the things we would do. We also had to figure out how to travel, public transport, map reading, etc. She also lost us a couple of times and we couldn't find her.

Very much a role reversal...

Costumes in Bath

This is the result of the corset putting on. Took 15 minutes.

This is one of hte old dresses. they actually wore them like it is displayed. I can imagine that if it was functional it would be good. e.g. when y

ou stand still, the frame would rest and you could put drinks on it. Would be great at cocktail parties to hold all your food. If you can get to the food table in the first place

Bath

Bath is a very pretty place, UNESCO listed city. This is the Abbey - went there on Easter Sunday and the sermon was really

good.

Bridge over the Avon river. Avon means river in Celtic. So, when the Romans asked the locals what that river was called, the locals said "Avon". Like asking someone what that is, and they tell you the obvious - only thing is that y

ou don't realise they are telling you the obvious

The Roman Baths at Bath were quite nice. the water's green because of the sunlight. It was still warm though.

Tina also went to the Costume museum and we spent ages getting her into a corset.

Bristol

Popped off to see Bristol which is near Bath. Tina's parents used to live here briefly.

Didn't see any evidence of their stay 30+ years ago.

Very industrial, still functioning harbour. Can't beat Sydney harbour though.

Aaron's blog

Monday, March 17, 2008

Some of the stuff I bought

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Little boy treks across the snow dusted Square

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Tina in the snow

Saturday, January 20, 2007

visual illusions in spain

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Cinque terre

Cinque Terre

Monday, August 14, 2006

Which car should I take??

Swiss travels

Sunday, July 16, 2006

St Moritz

UPA conference, then Vancouver

Friday, May 26, 2006

Rant

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Food highlights

Riksmuseum

Beef cuts

Tulips

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Bit sick and run down

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Costumes in Bath

Bath

Bristol

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