So much to say...

Jeez, where do I start? We bused (bussed?) off to Bristol on Sunday, getting there around mid-day. It was a beautiful sunny day that showed the city at its best. Our first impressions were very good. It was bright, open, clean and lively and had a really good vibe to it. It's a two University town which means there are heaps of students, much like Dunedin, but overall I thought it felt like Christchurch (if these comparisons mean anything at all.)

C came to meet us, bringing her daughter M straight from a party. M was dressed as Snow White so cut quite a figure in town. M and C haven't changed in the 9 odd years from W&R's wedding and are still easy get on with. Their circumstances have changed of course and they now have a lovely house in north central Bristol. The ride out was through parks and avenues so our first impressions were reinforced. There were the usual terrace houses but also many beautiful semi-detacheds and huge numbers of old stone Gerogian style houses. We did learn that we'd been driving through the 'Fendaltons' of Bristol though.

We discovered that the first of our boxes had arrived, unfortunately the one with the least useful contents just yet. Very good service however, as that was about a week from NZ instead of the 3-5 they had said would be likely.

We had a nice catch-up with M&C although there was lots of 'business' talk - where to stay, how to find work, what the schools were like, etc. I'm still slightly jet-lagged, or maybe it's the hay-fever which unhappily is kicking in, so I have to go beddy-byes relatively early.

Next day we headed off to see if work was likely. We went into half a dozen agencies but signed up with only two each I think. We were both offered potential positions straight away which is a good sign, if a little precipitate. On the basis that there seemed to be enough work available we made the decision that this would be our base, at least for 6 months.

After lunch we hit the letting agencies. We looked at two flats that afternoon, one of which may have suited us OK. We also jacked up two viewings for the next morning.Since we had by then walked 500 miles we called it a day and headed back to M&Cs.