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Hi guys,

Hope everyone is well and that some rain has come to the land down under. Probably hasn’t actually because it’s been raining monstrously here. It has been a very lukewarm winter though. This week and probably about four other weeks in the entire winter have been cold ie. around zero, otherwise, it’s been around 10 deg which I can’t complain about.

I have continued to ride my bike bravely throughout the entire Winter. I have yet been saved any side-scrapings by the mad London buses or impervious drivers. Touch lots of wood. I am still in the large Hospital in South London called St George’s but hopefully not for too much longer. It’s with the NHS and for those of you who have had the pleasure of the NHS, the free bit is but a small attraction when the queues and complete rudeness of the customer service becomes so apparent.

I have been pushed lately to find a way to extend my visa but looks like I have found a way. I thought naively that I would automatically qualify for the highly skilled migrant visa as I fulfilled their new set of criteria, the main one being the gross earnings, but as it turns out, the way my evil limited company setup was taxed worked very much against me so after 5 gruelling months of lawyers and accountants trying to piece together an application for me and after 7 interviews I sat trying to get sponsorship, it looks like one has come through. It looks like I will be working for the BBC and London Fire Brigade in Westminster for a guy over here and he is happy to sponsor me. I have 3 and 1/2 weeks to actually get a visa though so I won’t rest assured until I have that little puppy safe in my hands!

Some of you may have heard I got into Med school at home. I have deferred it and will just sit on it until I feel I can make a decision about whether it’s what I want to do for sure.. Was nice to know that I got an offer though..

As for London, I am still living with Libbi. We haven’t worn thin of each other yet and looks like Kristy will join us next week. I have been seeing a guy called Andy from Sydney now for four months or so which is also going well. We met (of all places) at The Walkabout in Cardiff. I cannot explain the Walkbout in London but lets suffice to say its an “idyllic Aussie pub” decked out with Aussie beer on tap and green and gold walls and a messy clientele! Not somewhere you expect to meet a boyfriend put it that way!

Recent trips have included a much yearned for and needed ski trip to the French Alps–we had great snow which has been a worry all winter because of the warm weather here. Also, Andy and I just got back from Iceland a few weeks ago which was crazy and cold (!) and soooo expensive. A meal for two (which crazily included their local shark meat-rotten and diced… “when in Rome..”) cost �150 (2 mains, 2 entrees and one bottle of wine). Thats $425 in AUD… Don’t do it unless you’re earning the pound. Great place though–the last day, we just floated in the Blue Lagoon–a natural blue hot spring with white mud “silica” that turned my hair to paper but my skin to baby’s bum softness!

Well, that’s it for now. Below is the address for Libbi’s website which she has had the luxury of compiling whilst working obviously NOT a perk of a physio job)… so please check it out as there are some photos up until our Morocco trip last year (myself, Zara and Libbi).

Happy Easter to you all. I always love hearing from all of you…

libbimacgregor.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php

Love Nat XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hi guys,

Hope all is well and warm at home in Oz. Im back into the swing of London life. I am cycling 30km most days to and from work which is a decent workout. I have bought one of those fluoro yellow reflectant back pack covers so i am now a really London cycling nerd!

I am off to USA next week for thanksgiving with my brother and his wife/family etc. in New Hampshire so I’m looking forward to my first American Xmas-experience! I have finally sorted out my photos so I will soon send through a few recent ones including our house I rave about!

If you get a chance this attachment (needs volume up) is fantastic. As a physio, I advocate you all try it!

Nat x

Hey peoples,

Hope you all had a nice weekend. I certainly did and to those who helped me celebrate the big 26, thanks cos I had a great day 🙂

Here’s testament to the friends and good times of London–read the excerpt below.

Have a good week and who knows–maybe the rhythm of the sun will about face and come out on the weekend cos so far the weekly sunny outlook is dismal!

Nat x

Life goes on… A working holiday in the UK gives us just enough time to get far too comfortable. We soak up a new way of living, weekends become a blur, we make new friends, enjoy great parties, different work and carefree travel. But before you know it, you find yourself in an empty room drinking cheap wine straight from the bottle while you try to cram two years of life into a couple of tea cartons. It’s only when the rug gets pulled from under you that you remember the whole thing was only temporary. It’s the bittersweet finale we all face eventually. Going home isn’t easy when you don’t necessarily want to go. You may be headed back to the best country in the world, but it’s little consolation for everything you’ve left behind or the gut-wrenching reality that descends with your final long haul flight. The first tentative weeks are a novelty. Or rather, “you” are. Old friends mock your accent, Carlton Draught is back on tap and mum washes, dries and irons your laundry the same day you threw it out. Then suddenly life seems far too normal and you realise that, apart from the new McDonald’s drive thru restaurant and the death of your old next door neighbour, nothing much has really changed. It seems that while you spent the past two years carving it up at house parties, skipping across to the Continent and generally taking as little responsibility for life as possible, all your mates were getting married, taking out mortgages and buying golden retrievers. And just to twist the knife, they don’t particularly want to hear how good you had it.

That’ll leave you to contemplate a 500 pound overdraft you still can’t afford to have processed. But it’s not the end of the world. Chances are you could still get your old job back and, if you don’t want it, you have the freedom to shop around think about life and what exactly you plan to do with it. It’s easy to forget how good London can look on a resume. In the grand scheme of things, there aren’t many people who’ve done what you have–pulled the plug on life, headed to a new one on the other side of the world, claimed a legitimate job of your own and not had a mental breakdown in the process. You could turn up drunk to an interview and the employer will still think you’re responsible, motivated and independent. More importantly, though, coming home finally gives you an opportunity to relish all those things you missed most. Things like cruising down the coast with the window down and the stereo blaring with all the music you never got sick of three years ago. You can eat hot pies from the servo, order Chiko Rolls with the ends burnt and drink chocolate milkshakes that aren’t thick with preservatives; shop assistants actually assist and nobody heads down to the pub before 11pm. Meanwhile, the only person deemed worthy of conversation in Australia these days (apparently) is a bloke called Shannon Noll–a farmer turned popstar who’s been swooning the nation singing about his black car. Jebediah have a new album, Daniel Johns has done something different with Paul Mac and Andrew Denton is more popular than ever. If nothing else, there’s always Ray Martin–Channel Nine put him back at the helm of A Current Affair and the ratings have soared. Perhaps the strangest part about coming back is getting used to the little things you never gave much thought to in the first place.

Like watching the weather report and seeing a map of home instead of a cloud covered Blighty. Back here you top up electricity, not your phone and, while we’re at it, folks SMS each other–they don’t text. Coming home is certainly an experience. Everything’s different on the one hand and nothing’s changed on the other. But you’ll still like the place. For a little while, you’ll still log on to Yahoo.co.uk to get news updates and check Ryanair to see where you can fly for 1 pound, but eventually you’ll sink back into the way it was always going to be. It’s likely your local Kmart plaza will still be dominated by pregnant teenagers and politicians will still be rambling on about the Children Overboard affair. You’ll still miss the other side of the world, but you can frame the best bits and sit them next to the pictures of friends you made and left behind. Most of them will keep in touch.

The really good ones won’t have to.

(Author not known.)

Hi boys at home,

Read this ad for a housemate on Gumtree–this is what you may have to get excited about when/ if you come to London to live!! He he.

That’s a woman who knows how to assert herself. Praise the Poms 🙂

Nat x