The job front!

Now onto the job front. Tim hit a fairly major stumbling block.... The British Criminal Records Beurea.

Turns out that York schools employ teachers exclusively through job agencies with each one wanting to complete their own CRB which takes a mere 6 WEEKS to complete. Tim has tripped around the town introducing himself and handing in his resume but no-one wants to know you here without a current CRB. One school was willing to go off his Aussie Police check and gave him 1 casual day. Tim had a great day at Osbaldwick Primary with 32 year 6 kids. The Aussie accent and Flint charm worked a treat ( if only he had his didgeridoo!)

Finally at week 7 the CRB came through and so did the work. CRB came in on the Monday and by that afternoon the next 3 weeks were booked up! Things are looking good!

Tiana on the otherhand had a much easier transition and got a full-time permanent job within 2 weeks of moving to York. Tiana registerd with a job agency and did a few temp days, one working in a local pub for a band going round and getting email addresses for his fan list. By the way if anyone receives a fan list subscription to Pete Lawrie you were there and you loved it :) I was referred to a local law firm, got straight in for an interview and they offered me a full time job as a legal assistant. Minster Law is a large law firm in York specialising in personal injury compensation. Nothing like my job back home but a fresh challenge with lots of new things to learn. My first few weeks have been hectic with Dave, who i am assistant to being stuck in Bangkok due to the flight delays from the Iceland Volcano. I've had to learn things pretty quickly being on my own the past 3 weeks and not really knowing what i'm doing but i've bluffed my way through and am looking forward to his return.

We have been in York 7 weeks now and have enjoyed to transition from freezing cold to mildly cool weather. The sun does shine here, but not consistently. The daffodils are in full bloom all round the city and any hint of sunshine makes the population of York skyrocket. Funny how the first glimpse of sunshine and all the locals are out in their short shorts and T-shirts with their blotchy pale skin on display. It seems they dress according to the calendar not the actual temperature.

From Donny to York

Hello all

It has been a while and we need to get this blog up-to-date or time just passes by. Had an awesome 2 weeks living with JJ and Katie in Doncaster. They were gracious enough to let us set up camp at their place and they treated us to some awesome hospitality and a great introduction to life in Yorkshire. Most memorable was our first encounter with snow (falling from the sky!!!) The weather was icy cold and we didn't leave the house in less than 1/2 of the contents of our backpacks. The streets were covered in a beautiful thick 6 inches of snow, it was like the whole town stopped. We ran a muck frollicking around the streets, making snowmen, and launching a snowball assault on eachother. We were like kids in a candystore.

Our entire 2 weeks in Donny were spent looking through real-eatate websites and employment classifieds waiting for something to jump out at us as the right fit. When this didn't happen in the first week we decided to venture out around Yorkshire to check out the surrounding area. We visited Leeds and Sheffield but their big city feel was a bit much for us. The cities felt like they would swallow up us small town folk so we moved onto the historic city of York.

York has a population of about 200,000 and is in the county of North Yorkshire halfway between London and Edinburgh. Its only about 2 hour train trip into central London but far enough away to be affordable. The town has a rich history which includes periods of both Roman and Viking occupation. The town has a huge Castle and Minster as it's main tourist attractions and the whole town is within an ancient Roman wall which you can walk right round. The city centre is a warran of cobblestone streets, historic pubs and buildings with museums, art galleries, ruins, churches. The list goes on and on.

We spent a weekend in York soaking in the atmosphere, getting a feel for the place and trying to find somewhere to live. The real etate agents didn't want to know about us being from overseas, with no references, no jobs and no bank account. But we finally found a place with a 6 month lease and kind landlords willing to give us a start. Our place is in quiet location about a 5 minute walk to one of the city wall entrances perfect for what we need for the time being.

We have bought push bikes as our main means of travel and cycle around the city and to church on weekends. Our trip to the grocery store have been somewhat anoying having to struggle home (a 15 min walk) with 5 bags of groceries hanging on each arm or hanging from the handlebars! but it's keeping us fit and allowing us to branch out to surrounding suburbs and onto some of the many cycle tracks in Yorkshire.