Week Ending 24th May

Sunday 17th May:
Usual Sunday events, doing the weekly shopping, coming to the hostel to upload pictures (finally up to date with them all) and downloading TV programs.

Monday 18th May:
Work, frustrating work

Tuesday 19th May:
It was only Tuesday and it felt like a long week already, not a good sign.

Wednesday 20th May:
Work, also got an interview with Lloyds TSB Autolease for the Friday for a job.

Thursday 21st May:
Work and got rung about the Lloyds interview which was brought forward by a 1/2 hour. One of the Australian guys working for Carillion is leaving to company soon to head back to Aus, and so we went out for a few drinks after work - I didn't end up staying for dinner as it was going to take me about 1.5 hrs to get home, and I didn't fell like getting home at midnight still needing to iron my shirt for the interview on friday.

Friday 22nd May:
Work, left early to go to my interview which is down near the Birmingham Internation Airport. Wasn't too bad an interview, and all things considered provided the pay rate is right I would take the job in this market. Also booked my flights to and from Ireland for a 2 week holiday. Leave on Sunday 31st May and get back on Saturday 13th June.

Saturday 23rd May:
Got a bus trip to Oxford for the weekend. Great weather to be going there in, sunny and warm. Got to Oxford booked into the hostel and then wanderer the town/city centre and surrounds. Walked along the canal and river, before having a rest at one of the churches where a Jazzchoir from Bonn uni were practicingfor their performance in the evening. I ended up going to it, as it was free and while there weren't that many people there it was a really good evening and display of talent.

Sunday 24th May:
Woke up had breakfast then waited in the common room to book out, as it happened that Jazzchor of Uni Bonn (or at least some of the members) were staying at my hostel. I ended up chatting to a couple of them (3 guys in the choir are from the USA). After the chat I went to a local baptish church where they happened to be guests and so got the chance to hear them again. Followed it by chatting to one of the guys again, then wandered down to the river bank where I sat sunbathing for a bit before heading back to the hostel to get my bag and heading to the bus station to head back to Birmingham.

Monday 25th May:
Another bank holiday, spending it at the hostel uploading the Oxford pictures and downloading a couple of programs. still relatively warm although the day is very overcast. It's going to be a nice relaxing day.

Monday 4th - Saturday 16th May

Monday 4th May:
Another Bank holiday which gave me a lovely day off which was subsequently spent around at the Hostel uploading photo’s and downloading TV programs. This was followed by a nice quiet evening at home.

Tuesday 5th May:
Unfortunately back to work.

Wednesday 6th May:
More work – the pain of work is if you don’t like it you don’t want to be there even if the people are nice. Hence I struggle at the moment for work.

Thursday 7th May:
More work – also gave notice of our moving out date (the start of a few complicacies! As it is not on the anniversary of our moving in date)

Friday 8th May:
Work – getting ready for the weekend.

Saturday 9th May:
Well I was suppose to be working, and as such got up early, as I also had to go to the post office and retrieve our second house key of which the spare had been found by our landlady. Followed by the train trip out to Wolve’s to find that the building was shut up tight like fort knox. Bit of a wasted early morning. However instead of working I just got back on the train, went home, got my laptop and headed to the Hostel for the usual day. Nothing exciting after that.

Sunday 10th May:
Lovely quiet day at home cleaning the house. Yes cleaning the house on a Sunday, while it was sunny and warm outside. Not the best thing to do on a Sunday, but I at least got to watch the GP. This was however preceded by going into town for a haircut.

Monday 11th May:
Nice quiet day at home away from work. Took 3 days off work because Emma and her cousin Susan were arriving later in the day for the night. First time I had hosted a dinner party at the flat, and all in all it went well.

Tuesday 12th May:
Up early as Emma, Susan and I were getting into their nice rental car and heading off to Brecon for a couple of days. We headed out of the city and made our way to Leominster to follow the Black and White Village trail (Tudor buildings mainly in the villages). We had a great time, and decided to stop at the Big Oak, only to find it really wasn’t that impressive. However we did notice a public walkway that ran through a couple of paddocks, where we decided to stop and enjoy our lunch – only to then find out we were eating in someone’s sheep paddock – the lady owner was very nice about it and we ended up have a nice conversation with her.
From there we headed to Hay-on-Wye, where we stopped for a few photo op’s, Susan loves her photos. We followed this driving to our destination for the night in the B&B Grange Hotel in Brecon. We checked in then after Emma asked the owner where was a good place to go for an hour walk before dinner, we headed off to climb/walk up the local semi-mountain (330 meters at it’s height, which I believe thus justifies it as a mountain). As such we wandered along with me as their GPS unit walking until we found the gravel road leading unmarked up the mountain, we entered the paddock gate of the mountain and made our way up the slope to the top of the mountain where it turnout to be a very windy experience. BTW the day had been very sunny and warm – for English standards, however Emma and Susan were finding it a little chilly. We also discovered that the rental car has a full length sunroof which was a very cool thing.
Anyway back to the mountain, after a number of photo’s we decided to try and make our way down the hill via the other track – not that easy to find so we ended up going through a couple of sheep paddocks until we actually found the proper path. All good fun seeing the sheep and lambs.
We followed this by going to the Three Horseshoes pub for dinner, were we entertained in an eating contest to finish all the mains and veg. Very entertaining to say the least, very hospitable owner operators, and lovely meals.
Then we headed back to the Hotel for the evening.

Wednesday 13th May:
Up in the morning for a very Welsh breakfast, consisting of Eggs and mushrooms (both of which I didn’t have), tomato, toast, sausage, bacon and fried bread. Then we left the Hotel we headed off to the Brecon Beacons and the waterfalls. Enjoyable time with drizzle and my phone ringing about potential jobs and my landlord calling in regards to my letter and us leaving the flat on the 7th. More issues concerning and complicating things. Anyway we eventually visited a number of waterfalls and headed off to a local town to grad some grub and Susan to post a couple of postcards.
We then headed off to the next stop for Emma and Susan at Cheltham Spa, which included going along the main motorway and over the bridge between England and Wales (near Bristol and Cardiff). The girls dropped me off at the train station where I caught the train back to Birmingham – very uneventful train trip.
When I got home I had a shock in store as our water bill had arrived and it showed us as owing ₤456 – and we apparently had used 1.08 cubic meter of water on average per day. This was clearly wrong and when I look at our water meter under the sink it showed on a reading of 445 instead of 614. big difference and meant we owed over ¼ less.


Thursday 14th May:
Work and more work. Had to ring around a few people during my lunch break. Started at calling the water company to get the water bill change which went quite successfully. This was followed by calling the electricity company to pay my electricity bill. This was then followed by calling the Real Estate agents to sort out my rental issue, however that didn’t go so well as I think the agents is a bit absent minded (as I rang Steph a call later in the night and she said she’d called him and he was suppose to call her today as well after talking to me). Then I rang and was on hold with the council to pay my council tax bill.

Friday 15th May:
Work – where I gave notice that I was finishing up at the end of the month, followed by a train trip to London to met up with Jenny and Jamie for dinner and night in London at a hostel. Unfortunately my train took longer that I was expecting and kept getting later and later, so Jenny and I ended up arranging to met for brunch/lunch on Saturday instead of dinner.
As such I booked into the Hostel, then went for a walk along Queensway to get dinner at Saki Japanese restaurant. Then went for a walk, had a waffle with Belgium chocolate for dessert then went for a walk along the outside of Hyde Park. Then went back to the hostel where I got chatting to an Italian girl over for a few days in London on holiday. We went for a beer and a chat then went back to the hostel for bed time – 12 people in a tinny room does not bode well, although it wasn’t too bad.

Saturday 16th May:
Work up early at the hostel due to the noise from some of the other people who were staying there. Got up for breakfast which was cereal and toast. From there I booked out and decided to walk along Hyde Park to Piccadilly Circus, then down to the Millennium Bridge to met Jamie and Jenny for brunch at a local restaurant that Jamie had been to a few times, was really nice meal and dessert had.
From there we walked along the north bank toward the Victoria Theatre for Jamie and Jenny’s date at the stage show of Billy Elliott. From there I left them and made my way to Victoria Station to catch the Tube back to Marylebone station to catch my train back to Birmingham. Got back to Birmingham without any issue then walked home before going to Morrisons for my weekly shopping.