I’ve just put 70-something photos up on facebook, and I don’t want to put them all here as well… but if you click the following links you can see all the photos!  You don’t even have to be a member of facebook – anyone can see them!

A bit of a quick blog post, but then a picture tells a thousand words!

Pictures from my trip to New Zealand 2010:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=191964&id=609426517&l=ba5a3fd5cd

Pictures from my weekend trip to Switzerland

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=191963&id=609426517&l=508332ceb5

My friend Ian and his new house and puppy

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=191953&id=609426517&l=61ddd58754

Dave and Kelly Anso’s wedding

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=191943&id=609426517&l=375569cfb4

… and I can’t wait!

But there’s supposed to be snowstorms in London tonight, which is predicted to bring London transport to a standstill tomorrow (Wednesday). Luckily I’m flying Thursday, by which stage the forecast is only “light snow”, and they give long-haul flights priority at the airport, but my connection time in Korea to catch my connecting flight is only 80 minutes, so any delay at Heathrow may cause me to miss my second flight which would mean that I’d be stuck in Korea until the next flight a day later!

SNOW HAVOC!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/Snow-havoc-in-UK-more-to-come

In case you’re wondering, there was originally 2 hours between flights when I first booked them, but Korean Air kept changing the times of the flights. Who knows, they might still change them again! And, if there’s enough snow I may have to walk to Heathrow.

God getting out of the cold is going to be great. It’s constant snow and constant 0-2 degree days. This is by far the coldest winter we’ve had since I moved here in mid-2006.

For New Years Eve, Hannah and I went to South Shields to stay with Naomi and Paul.  The drive up on 30 Jan after work from London was quiet and it was good to see the extended family.

We went shopping in Newcastle and found some interesting things for sale.

In the evening seven of us went out to the bars around South Shields.

Normally it is fun going out in South Shields, however this time it started snowing hard around midnight, and there were suddenly no taxis. I waited in the taxi stand line for an hour, and only one taxi turned up in that time, and there were at least 50 people waiting.  I got bored of waiting and by that time was almost freezing to death and so decided to jog back to Naomi’s place with only a thin jacket through very heavy snow.  Here’s a photo I talk on the way back – you can kind of see how hard it was snowing.

The rest of the group huddled in a nearby kebab shop and waited until it closed, when they paid the kebab shop owner to drive them home!

The snow wasn’t all bad though, at least the next day Naomi and I made a snowman! You can see here the massive effort we put into it:

It’s been so cold this winter in England.  I can’t wait until I’m back in New Zealand on Saturday and back to the beach and the warmth.

Today the London Underground extended the Circle Line, now, after starting at Edgware Road, it does a full circle then continues to Hammersmith.

It meant that today, after going to the huge Westfield in West London, I was able to get a tube from Wood Lane all the way home to Tower Hill without changing trains.

A minor help, although they said that the whole reason for the extension was to give the Circle Line a fixed start and end point to help improve reliability. However there was still the usual wait at Edgware Road, Baker Street and Aldgate, although perhaps the delay was fractionally shorter than usual. But it must suck to be those people who travelled westbound from Baker Street towards Notting Hill – they now have to change. Also it must be confusing for the tourists to have two Paddington stations on the same line.

In case you’re wondering what I bought at Westfield, I bought a milkshake with Reeces Pieces and Turkish Delight which I think had my whole daily calorie allowance in one milkshake (but damn it was good), and then I got a waterproof jacket for running in the winter, down to £13.99 from £42.99 from Sports Direct.

On a lighter note, I just booked tickets to Zurich! My friend Oli has moved there and I’m flying there for a snowboarding holiday. It’s not until 26 Feb, but I am VERY exited.

£46 for a return flight – amazing.  Plus £16 for a bag… but still amazing.

It will be my first flight with EasyJet, and my first flight out of London Gatwick airport.