Foreign Correspondent Resurfaces

My Foreign Correspondent has returned after an unexplained hiatus. Read what's been happening in his world ....
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It seems that winter is releasing its grip on the UK and that spring has been
welcomed in by bird flu. Oh well I guess that swan is off the menu.

About the only thing that I have done this year is work and travel...and travel
is all I intend on doing. If the destination is cheap and costs nothing to get
there, I will visit it! The winter holiday at home was good. It cured me of any
homesickness. As always time was short and in the end I did not see some people
that I wanted to and not enough of the people that I did see.

I ended up cutting the return trip through Malaysia off and instead went to
Budapest for the weekend with Geri. Budapest is a great place but the language
was so different from English that we really did struggle. I did manage to
drink a truck load of wine and can reccomend Hungarian wine. Tokaji is the
better variety -quite sweet desert type wine. I must have had around 50
different wines while there, although I remember virtually none of them.
Budapest aside from being a stunning city straddling the Danube is also home to
lots of cafes that serve blimmin nice cakes.

When I got back I moved into a new flat with one of the guys that I work with.
The flat is good. The plasma screen TV is pretty much dedicated to football
with the widescreen solely used for playing online Project Gotham Racing on the
XBox360. Aside from that the place is a tip. Really we need a maid except Si
and Wes dont have girlfriends at the moment. Oh yeah, they are Poms which makes
things interesting!

A couple of weeks ago Geri and I went to Prague for a long weekend. That place
is wicked and sooo cheap. Beer is about 70p (or on current exchange rates about
NZ 150 dollars).The place is well worth a visit. My cousin is trying to get me
to go with him on a rugby trip there in May but I think that I will hold off as
tickets to the Rugby World Cup in 2007 go on sale on Monday. I am going to get
tickets to all NZ Pool games, 1/4 final and semi final. This will mean that I
have a better chance of getting a ticket to the final.

For Easter Geri and I are off to Istanbul in search of some sun and warmth and
some easter eggs. Its somewhere I have always wanted to go, and ideally I would
like to be there for ANZAC day but that is not possible so I will have to
suffice with the Walkabout in Brighton.

As some of you are aware I may not be living in the UK for much longer. I flew
to Brussels last week for an interview to do much the same job as I do here for
the Benelux region. I can choose whether I am based in Brussels or Amsterdam
though either way I would be based in the other city for 2-3 days a week. As
there is no other candidate my chances are pretty strong. This has been the
source of many conversations between Geri and myself as you can understand,
though she has seemed to be warming to the idea of late.

Sam-you had the sprog yet? If so what was it?
Ernie, does this suffice?
Chip -hows things? have you moved yet?