Whew what a whirlwind weekend I had! The weekend in question is the 21st & 22nd of November that went from a 3 day one where I was mainly going down to see the All Blacks kick England’s ass at Twickenham…. to a 5 day weekend where I had a job interview as well!
Originally I planned to just drive down to Oxford on the Friday – taking my time this time and taking in some sights on the way - go to the game on Saturday with Amelia and Mike, then drive back first thing Sunday morning. That all changed on Thursday morning when I got the call from a job agency asking if I could be down in Reading for an interview on the following Tuesday! Of course I said yes and then kinda freaked out a little as my head exploded a wee bit thinking how I was going to pull this off… so first of all I went through all the scenarios in my head. Hmmmm drive back up to Newcastle on Sunday and go to work on Monday only to drive/get train back down Monday night/Tuesday morning? Methinks not! so I squared it with the boss to have Monday and Tuesday off (as well as Friday)… good-bye precious annual leave + flexi time I’d built up! So…. I headed down on the Friday, taking a detour via Whitby on the coast (gorgeous!) to have their famous Fish & Chips, and then proceeded to get lost beyond belief around Birmingham once it got dark (at 3.30pm!) and the sat-nav died! Eventually I made it to Amelia & Mikes and fell onto their sofa and accepted the wine on offer… pffft like I would ever refuse wine!
Up bright and early on the Sat morning for the game… excitement!!! Massive NZ flag in hand we left and headed off to Twickenham safe in the knowledge that the sat-nav was fully charged. Or so we thought! Yeah we got stuck in traffic the closer we got to Twickenham and it pretty much died a slow death… so I nominated Mike to write down the directions before it completely shut down. Meanwhile… we noticed a big white van in the lane next to us with an England flag flying – cool, at least we know we’re in the right place! Ok so they’re getting out of the car to stretch their legs cos we’ve moved like an inch in half an hour… OK so their not stretching their legs – they’re taking a piss on the side of the road in bumper to bumper traffic!!! Nice… and to add insult to injury one of them had on a really retro All Blacks top on… I’m talking Buck Shelford era haha. If he hadn’t just done what he did I would’ve tooted my horn and waved the flag…
Alas we eventually got to Twickenham, parked the car and ventured inside to soak up the atmosphere…. and more importantly feed our faces as we were starving! HELLOOOO fancy sausage in a bun… YUM!
Seats found and would you look at that we’re like 3 rows from the field! Best seats ever and was so awesome to be able to actually see the faces of the All Blacks when they were near! Cue Hayley Westenra (my brother went to school with her…) and the Kiwi national anthem…. also cue Amanda to start singing along to the Maori version at the top of her lungs and get weird looks from surrounding people! but hey… impressed with myself that I knew all the words haha. Have to admit I did get a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat during it (which almost hindered the ’singing’ aka screeching) and before I know it it’s time for the HAKA… oh yeah! All in all it was an amazing experience… and I got a pretty damn nice view of Dan Carters ass when he bent over right in front of me! still annoyed I couldn’t get my bloody camera out in time haha.
Oh and we won of course and the atmosphere was out of this world! Took me a while to get used to the fact that when the rest of the 82,000 strong crowd were cheering and getting excited it was generally not a good sign for the AB’s haha. For the first few mins I was cheering for the England team a few times before getting used to it… oh and I was a very vocal Kiwi fan… imagine a moment of silence… then a scream from a lone New Zealander of “C’mon All Blacks C’mon” haha embarrassing? hell yes but well worth it! Specially when the lady sitting next to me said “I’m supporting the England team… but your guys have got better legs for sure!” haha oh and when the entire crowd kicked in with… “Swing loooowwwww… Sweet Chariot…” it was like something I’ve never experienced before and just had to smile.
To cut a loooooong story short… the rest of the weekend was awesome too! After the game we went back to Oxford to go to Nandos for tea but couldn’t get a park so went back to Amelia and Mikes & had some drinkies, then on Sunday we slept in like we’ve never slept in before haha and spent the day lazing about (bliss!) then on Monday I slept in a weee bit and went to Reading for a trial run before the interview and to look at the shops, then came back and had Nandos for tea in Oxford with Amelia. Went to the interview on the Tuesday morning… came out feeling pretty good about it and drove back up to Newcastle, arriving back about 7pm thoroughly exhausted!
The next day I get a call from the agency saying can I go back down the following Tuesday for a 2nd interview as they couldn’t decide between me and one other person… totally awesome that they were impressed with me but on the drive home I thought a lot about what they’d told me about the job during the interview and decided it wasn’t the job for me after all….
Onwards and upwards though… I was super-glad to have this past weekend totally free of any plans whatsoever and after getting chores out of the way Sat morning, then checking on my Grandad’s house, I pretty much did nothing the rest of the weekend…. perfect!
I’ve put some pics up on Smugmug but at this stage they’re just the ones from my mobile… CLICK HERE…been too much of a lazy bitch to get on my laptop and sort my camera photos cos I took a HEAP… maybe this weekend!
Laters gators… xxx
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