The Moneyless Man

So, an up-to-date post.

David has now also joined the 26 year old gang, having celebrated his birthday last week.  And we are on HOLIDAY!

I think it's fair to say that it's been a bit of a tough run for David with work.  Money has been a consuming factor in our life (annoyingly) and the pressure to work has been looming over us.  David has been in and out of work, which has made things difficult at times.  But, we're not going to let that stand in the way of the whole reason we are here.  To travel.  So, although things have been tough we still plan to make the most of the six-week school holidays and see the world.  Well, the French part of it at least.  On Wednesday we are off to the south of France to do another workaway (like what we did in Scotland).  It's the answer to many questions - primarily, how can we travel when we're on a tight budget? And we can't wait.  At this stage we don't know much more than we are heading south, somewhere between Toulouse and Bordeaux where we will be picked up by our hosts and taken back to their place.  We'll keep you posted.

Despite me saying this, it hasn't all been doom and gloom.  Far from it in fact.

Here's a random assortment of photos to prove it.  And this is just the photos taken on our reasonably crappy phone cameras (proper photos are yet to be uploaded - quite the task on this laptop which is currently struggling to write this and play music at the same time). What isn't yet documented is the blackberry jam David is currently making after a morning blackberry picking along the river, the skills I've amassed as a Lion King face painter, or the time we took the plunge at Hampstead Heath.  

But what is documented is the time we braved the cold to travel down to Brighton for the day...

And experienced the British phenomenon of the seaside arcade.  Who needs to be outside breathing in the fresh sea air when you could be winning the pennies on an arcade machine.

The view from New Zealand House is quite spectacular.  How New Zealand managed to acquire one of the prime real estate locations in London is beyond me.  Don't even get me started on where the money spent on rent here could be better spent.  Doesn't mean I wasn't complaining when we had the chance to check out its penthouse suite.

The recently discovered Brixton Markets; heaven in a coffee cup.  David swears this is the only photo he's ever managed to capture of me with a genuine smile.

Here are the dumplings we found at the market.  An almost three year search is over.

A cycling trip out yonder.

And back again.

The London Zoo opens up on Friday nights during the summer.  Children are replaced with alcoholic beverages  and you can watch the animals while the sun goes down; hold me back.

There was the time we went to Wimbledon.

It was a pretty incredible experience.

And then the next night when we went and watched Arcade Fire play in Hyde Park.  Maybe the best gig I've been to.

A cute British village; a Sunday jaunt landed us in Rye.

We danced all day at the LoveBox music festival last weekend.  The music wasn't really my everyday cup of tea, but we still had an incredible time.

And then there was that time I finally explored my mum's hometown; Liverpool.

It was a surprising city.  In a good way.  

A sneaky photo taken at the filming of The Graham Norton Show.

And a sneaky pint thrown into the mix.

Exploring the shores of Brighton.

Giraffes, cider and sunshine; what more could a girl ask for?.. 

The answer. Doing it all with some pretty cool people.

The queue to get into Wimbledon was all worth it when we sat down and watched some of the best players in the world battle it out.

That Arcade Fire gig I previously mentioned was made pretty amazing by the blazing sunshine.

A few Sunday's ago we escaped to Rye on the South coast and explored its Nature Reserve.

It was meant to rain.  It didn't.  And I didn't take sunscreen with me.

All worth it when we had a mid-afternoon nap under the walls of a Henry VIII castle.

Sheltering from the sun during LoveBox music festival.  It was a stinker of a day; I remembered sunscreen this time.

Back to Liverpool.  It's nearby impossible to get these photos into some sort of chronological order (I don't think you appreciate just how slow this computer is) so it's a bit haphazard I'm afraid. 

We've been to a fair few churches in the past year.  Possibly the coolest one we've been to. This is the interior (complete with random painting man, jazz music and sunflowers).

The whole reason I have a British passport.  Where my Mum was born.

And the whole reason my brother's exist.  You'll never walk alone.



- Hana