Riverdance was great - the Hippodrome was decked out in gold and red with decorations etc of the same era as the Opera House and St James in Wellington - except people could sit in the boxes. They will have some fabulous shows there this year so we may be regular attendees. Felt quite priviledged to have central seats downstairs so had a great view of the intricate irish dancing and musicians. Enjoyed good Bristol cuisine for the first time at a pasta house (should I therefore say Italian) and a short walk around the docks. Makes us quite excited about our trip to Ireland with Jill and Graham in August.

Tonight we had a look around Nelson Street before becoming real Bristolians and joining the central library. We had walked down the street before but it was always to somewhere and didn't realise the siginficant of it. The gateway with the black and gold clock is St John's Gate - the only medieval gateway into Bristol left. Besides us, Henry VII and Elizabeth I have walked (or driven) under the gate. We moved up the street - with some but not many historic buildings dominated now by newly constructed buildings after the war. Quite a mish mash really. The Edward Everard building is now home to the Royal Bank of Scotland. The facade apparently is an example of Art Nouveau designed in 1901 for the printing works that was in the building. The Thistle Hotel didn't seem to offer much history - but under the lovely flowering baskets is a box hedge (which my friend Heather has some of). The only difference is that Heather's is real where these were very plastic - beautifully trimmed and presented though. Wandered through to the Corn Exchange - with the clock with two minute hands. They discovered when trains came along that London was 11 minutes in front of Bristol - so if you caught a train it was on London time. Pity poor travellers who had watches with only one minute hand. In the exchange was a picture of what the street looked like a few years ago!!

We had another fire alarm in our building yesterday. We stood outside on the footpath right outside the front door wedged between the stairs and the iron railing which prevented us from falling onto the busy street. It took ages for the fire engines to come even though it wasn't a practice (there are about 5 wards in our building). In the mean time a post office van drove up and parked in front on the fire engines. The driver hopped over the iron railing to open the mail box - discovered there was quite a lot of mail in there so put a pile on the top of the box (we watched it flutter in the breeze) and hopped back over to get a bag. The mail wouldn't have survived in Wellington and if you are missing mail from England that could be a possible reason.

We met Frannie for lunch today. For those of you who don't know Frannie she joined TEC about 18 months ago after leaving her home town Bristol. She is back visiting family and friends and our lunch was more special by the fact that she was the first person who has invited us out to a meal since we have been Bristol.

It is a small world. I got a ring from the agency today. They said that someone had registered from NZ and they know me - and from next week they will be starting work with Harry. We don't know each other well as she worked in MSD and we only met in the occassional meeting, but she did work very closely with my sisters neighbour (about 2 km down the road in Eketehuna).

Accents are continuing to be a conversation opener. So many people ask where we are from and tell us they have friends in NZ - chicken or dairy farming or fruit growing seems to be vocations many of them choose. A man said to me today that he has many friends around the world that he could stay with but he doesn't like holidays - as soon as he gets there he wants to come home cos he misses it so much!! Anyway, today my boss asked me to get copies of a document. She had written 'poor' over some bits and I said did she want that on there. She said yes - and I replied 'six copies was it'. Her answer was 'yes it sucks doesn't it?' So, now I know the English pronounce six differently - and quite differently from the Aussies.

Another story - we still haven't received our tax disk for our car (the registration). Although Harry had paid for it over the internet two weeks ago. He went to the post office yesterday and found that because when he registered on the internet the system had not yet recorded we were the legal owners they did not allow the application (it takes 3 days apparently). The online system did not tell us that it could not register us and took our money. So, yesterday Harry went to the post office to buy a tax disc and request a reimbursement from the Motor Vehicle Authority for our lost money - who says online is quicker!! It is hard to believe that you can buy a car and legally you can't drive it for a number of days afterward.

We still haven't been able to use our visa cards cos the pin number hasn't arrived in the post and they have had to request another cheque book cos mine hasn't arrived! Still at least we have access to money and I'm not entirely sure it is different elsewhere - we just need to do everything at once.

Another story which I am saving to last as I hope many of you may have got bored by now and have switched off!! A couple of nights ago we got to do internet banking for the first time. I checked my accounts and discovered I had not been paid!!! When I rang up the agency yesterday, they told me what bank account number I had given. It was so different to mine I couldn't figure it out. But a little while later a light went on and I realised I had given them Harry's bank details instead of mine - and he had said nothing - absolutely nothing!!! So, a warning for travellers - when tired, and lots on your mind, not a good idea to give out bank details.