Back to Normal life!!!!

Sightseeing is all done now and now it’s time to go back to work. So London hmm well not too sure if we really enjoyed it much!! We were staying in a Backpackers in a suburb called ew cross seemed to be a bit of a dodgy neighborhood. We had a tube station just down from the Hostel so that made it easy to get into town each day. We arrived on Saturday night by the time we got to our hostel and sorted our shit out was pretty much bed time. We were sharing a room with 2 Brazilians they seemed quite nice so that was good we felt kind of safe leaving our stuff in the room with them. Sunday was the day we planned to try and see all the sights. We got on the early tube into town and heading for Buckingham palace man there were so many tourists there!!! We couldn’t be stuffed waiting in the crowds of people for the changing of the guards so we carried on our merry little way!! Saw some cool squirrels in the local park we were to tight to buy some nuts of the local bum to feed them. The squirrels already looked fat enough!!! We walked down some street with a few shops on looking for an Electronic shop to buy a UK power adaptor. We found one shop which sold them for 9.49 pounds so that’s like 27bucks or maybe bit more. So decided that was a bit too much and carried on, further down the road we found another one. This one sold the exact some plug for 3pounds so of course we brought that just crazy to have such a massive difference.
We then walked down to the Thames River. Man that river isn’t really too much of a sight I think the Manawatu river even looked cleaner!!!

We then took a tube down river more and walked around a bit more. We returned to our hostel to find it about 5 degrees hotter in our room than it was outside and outside it must have been like 28 degrees, So we much around a little bit then decided that we would go back into town for Dinner, We found a really classy “subway” got our two subs then walked to the local park and ate. Next minute it started to piss down, So much for a romantic dinner I was doing well to!!! I mean subway how can you go wrong with that!!!!

Monday morning we had to get up early to try and get our way across town for our bank appointment. Man peak hour tubes are fun!!!! The Tube was soooo chocker block was like sardines squashed into a can!!! Anyway we made it safe and sound and still had time to spare. We got a talk from the Britbound people (britbound was the company that was setting up our bank accounts, NI (tax) numbers and also just helping us get jobs and so on) that was quite good told us a lot of interesting different things kind of made us want to stay in London as they have lots of group outings like pup crawls (not that I could handle that) musicals (not too sure if I could handle that) and then getaway weekends (could handle that) Once they had finished there talk it was time to set up the bank accounts, only to find that Piret needed a proof of address from Estonia god knows why!!Sso that was useless cos of course we didn’t have one so she was kind of stuffed if only we were told before we left eesti ohh well, so now I think Britbound is going to sign her up to a different bank. I got mine sweet so now have account all ready to go. Just need to get some money to put in it!!! After that we trained back into town and had a look at London Bridge but it was so hot we decided we couldn’t handle anymore and headed for home!!!


I am now sitting on the train to Sheffield im a bit scared about what is to come up in the following few weeks!!! We hope to go into some Job agencies today and try and get some temping work, then hopefully we can get something a bit more permanent in a month or so, We also have to try and get a flat, we are going to stay with some friends but we don’t want to out stay our welcome and also they don’t have a TV so how can I watch the Olympics!!!! But we will soon see

Oringen, man it hurts!!!

Well since my last post i have done two races both of which i died. First off we had a sprint which was held on the side of ski slope. From the start area we could see the finish area on the far below us. there were so many people watching was just crazy!!! the Woman started first and when i was waiting at the start line the last woman were coming in and the crowd was going NUTTS like could hear soooo much cheering and clapping. I was one of the early starters in the men and was standing at the startline and heard the annoucer say "Next to start is Bryn Davies all the way from New Zealand" So once i got my map and started to run was soooo worried about getting number one ok cos everybody below could see every move you made!!! Lucky for me i got it ok was a bit slow but main thing is i got it

This is the way we went to number One then across to 2 and so on

The rest of my run wasnt to bad made a few stupid little mistakes but just had no speed or anything!!! I think i might be getting sick or else i must still be tired from the races last weekend!!! Anyways finished quite a bit behind winners. I bet one New Zealander by 2 secs and Ross kicked our ass by 2min he was doing ok at the start had fastest time at the first radio control for a while but yeah he died at the end. Once i finish was flooded by little kids wanting autographs which was kinda cool but was bit to tired but did a few so that kept them happy!!

Today we had long and man was it long!!! We had 3km walk to start, then we had 15.6km with 770m climb. On the way to the 3rd control i was already shattered and was wondering if i was going to make it, well lucky for me i did make it but rather slowly was alot behind winner and 10min behind Ross. Not to sure why i cant run but hopefully tomorw will be sweet and i can have a fast run!! least we have less distance but still think its gonna be painful.
Ok all for now off to bed to rest up


New Photos Uploaded

Left Essti now heading West

Well last weekend in eesti was full of packing and sorting out which stuff to take and what to not. Pirets Dad came home on friday during Pirets High school reunion thing. It was kinda boring for me so kinda left them to it and watched Tv inside. Saturday the lawn mower kinda broke again so FINALLY they went and got a new one its wider than the old lawnmower by 100mm which is quite a bit and it also has some system that assist you to push it so when u move it forward it keeps rolling making it need no effect to push it around the lawns!!! so im still uncertain as to why they left it to the last day i was in eesti to buy it maybe it was some sort of test useing some shitty old broken lawnmower who knows!!!! So we left eesti at 1pm and flew from there to Olso in Norway, where we had to wait 4hrs in the airport intill the bus came which was to take us to Oringen. For those that dont know Oringen is the biggest oing event in world.
This year they have over 27000 people entered which when u think about it is a rather lot to have running through the forest!!! they have booked out over 3 Ski villages and still didn't have enough room so had to book out a few more!!! they also have busses going to to all the places and back to event center, Busses from each village out to the event there would be about 4 buses leaving every 5min from every village. they set up new shops for us!! the Organization is amazing would be so hard to try and get everything working together.
Anyways back to the bus ride, whilst waiting in the airport i was walking around to try and fill in time them randomly meet a NZ girl and turns out she was in charge of the Oringen bus which we were about to catch so that was kinda random. We stopped for dinner half way which was still in norway, Piret and i both got hamburgers pretty shit ones at that too cost over 50nz man norway is crazy expensive!!!! glad we didnt stay in Norway at all!!!

We arrived at our Hotel at 11.30pm then had to try and find our room which was kinda fun cos the office was shut luckily they left the keys in the letterbox!!! We are staying in this wicked Hotel right at the foot of the ski slopes. Our room has one double bed and then two bunks. Has Playstation 2 and also dishwasher so thats a added bonus. From our window we can see the Event center and all the sports shops that they had built for Origen so lucky for us we are smack bang in the middle of it all!!! Normally Oringen is kinda close together like where everybody stays normally they have a MASSIVE tent city but this year most stay in Houses so its way more spread out!!! which makes it feel not so big!!!
Yesterday we went out to a Model map was quite fun way different to other swedish maps i have run on in the past and i found it a bit easier than normal which is good thing!!! We spent the afternoon looking around all the shops buy a few things so credit card took a beating!!! Im staying with the eesti team and the Nz team have a room one floor above us so thats kinda handy. Nz has 3 men running so Ross and Micheal adams and me, They also have a few tag alongs in there room with Micheal parents and then Todd and martin so its kinda full lucky for me in my room we only have Piret, liis and annika so have a bit of room!!!
This Morning Ross piret and i went on the map of the ski slope above our hotel was a bit of a climb getting to the top of hill but once up there was ok. Now we just relax in till sprint tonight. Hopefully will report back some time soon to tell you how its all going!!


Some new Pics uploaded too

Tallinn!!

Piret and i jumped on a train at 6am to head to Tallinn. Main reason for this trip was for Piret to meet her dress maker. Once we arrived we caught a bus to Pirets sisters Flat, Her sister never lives here its just for when ever she is visiting Tallinn as she normally lives in Finland. Anyways we dumped our gear and then headed back into town. We arrived just in time to walk to the dress makers workshop, she was a young girl but seemed pretty nice and very confident so i guess thats a good thing considering she is making Pirets Dress, she showed us the other wedding dress she had made so that gave me some confidence.

After that we did a bit of shopping Piret got some new shoes (lucky for her) and i got nothing as always. We then started our walk around Old town (its kinda the tourist city center) it full of restaurants and souvenir shops a lot of which sell amber shes kinda popular werid to think my sister would be so....... and the even more werid thing is shes costs heaps!!!!

It was crazy the amount of tourist it was actually really annoying!!! They had these postcard stands all over the show and the girls would come up to you speaking english trying to get you to buy them, kinda funny really, Wish we had have gone and looked around early morning so missed all the crowds of people but anyway. So after being a tourist for the day we had a beer in one of the local pubs Piret had about half of hers leave me to have 1 and a half man and i tell you thats alot for me!!!! went straight to the head, i must point out beers here are 500ml and 5.2% but yeah i know im a light weight!!!!

Today we didnt really do much feet were to sore from all the walking around yesterday!!! Piret has some high school reunion at her place on Friday so that should be interesting her dad is also coming back to see us before we go. Not long now ive been looking for flats on the internet, should be kinda exciting there are heaps of brand new apartments available so hopefully we can get one of them all fully furnished which is good for us or else might be a bit expensive to get our own place then try and fill it with things!!!
I will finish off today with a newspaper clipping for the eesti paper i have no idea what it says but anyway

What a weekend

Well better start off with the week that’s been!! Did a fair bit of lawn mowing, went to town and sorted out more wedding stuff meet with hotel and talked to them about the dinner menu so that was good to get the sorted just waiting for the price :S Other than that thou not too much. The internet broke on Wednesday, lighting hit some tower so the whole area lost internet. The guys that needed to fix it happened to be on holiday so had to wait till today (Monday) to fix it ohh well the main this is its fixed now.

Saturday- We had found a running race in Otepaa that we were going to do. It was part of a national series so attracted most good runners around eesti. It was a 11km course around a lake all on roads but with a few rather painful hills. I started off ok we did the first KM a bit fast for me but least it got me up with the lead runners, there was an Estonian orienteer that was racing so i was wanting to beat him. He got away from me going up a hill cos i thought i should stick to my speed he got about 100m in front and then seemed to stay that for the whole race. I finished in 14th in a time of 37min the winner did 33min so was a bit in front of me, the essti orienteer also beat me so that sucked. Was good doing a running race and not a orienteering race dont know if the body knew what it was doing thou. The top 15 men got a Adidas running top and the top 10 woman. Piret finished 10th in the woman so she got one also and unlucky for her it is to big so i now get two. SWWWWWEETTTTT. Once home i spent the afternoon lying on the bed watching old movies whilst Piret was reading the paper. She then found that there was a Half marathon in Viljandi the nxt day. Of course i thought it would be a great idea!!! So we decided that we would go in and give it a go, Piret was only going to do the 10km but i thought i would give the 21km a nudge.

I woke not feeling to bad. The weather was once again shit. Im sure i said summer is finally here well i think i must have been drunk or something cos it isnt, its warm but it just seems to rain everyday and sometimes even treats us to a bit of Hail, thunder and lighting. Anyways back to the running!!! We got to the registration wondering if we were really doing the right thing Piret was happy to find that for her to run in her grade she did only have to run the 10km but if i was to run mine then i had to run the Half. Warming up we both felt rather stiff and sore!!! once the race started adrenaline seemed to make the pain fade well at least for the first 5km then i started to get feel my legs that seemed to feel like bricks. At the 5km mark i was in 3rd but then was happy to see the leader who was 50m in front of us turn around so he was only doing the 10km, SWEEETTT then i wondered if maybe i should do the same. but my stupidity made me keep running as soon as we past the 5km mark the one guy who i was running nxt to just seemed to take off!!!! Up to that stage i was doing around 3.27min/km and he must have gone to about a sub 3.20min/km speed. So as you can guess i let him run off i think he only lasted at that speed for maybe 2km but was enough to get a good lead on me I was also caught by two other guys. i started to drift off the back. My speed hadnt changed too much but they just seemed to run a bit faster i stuck with the two guy’s intill about the 8km mark where one of them started to drop off. At the 9km the other one also dropped off so I was alone, the leader probably was 200m in front and didnt really seem to be getting much closer. The course was a simple 10.5km out then turn around and go all the way back. My body was telling me to slow up but i kept trying to maintain a steady speed. At the 12km mark i knew i was starting to catch up, by 13km i had caught him now we hit the long straights into the wind the guy just sat in behind me and let me do all the work it was a painful 5km then the course changed direction to be running side on with the wind. At 19km i was starting to hurt big time but lucky for me i was opening up a gap by the time i got to 20km I had a 100m gap so was lucky enough to be able to hold on for a win. My time is slower than what i have done in NZ but was still happy considering i had done a rather hard race the day before. i did a Time of 78.09min which still isnt to bad considering!!! I was pretty shattered thou. Once over the line nearly chucked up but luckily for the spectators i held it down. The guy on the microphone thought it would be a good idea to interview me but once he figured out i spoke English he decided that it was such a good one considering he couldn’t!!! After a nice shower and a refreshing coke we waited for the prize giving. Then the guy with the mic came over again this time with a translator "SHIT" so he asked some random questions and the guy tried translating it but kinda missed the important things such as the part about me racing yesterday. But anyways I got to stand on a Podium where I was presented a winner’s trophy and got a cool running hat which the guy in 6th place also got the same thing!!! It’s still more than i got from winning any other running race I have done. Piret was 2nd in the woman’s race behind this chick who was pretty much running in undies kind of hot i must say!!! Piret was happy as she got a Pair of running socks which fit her unlike her top from the day before!!!

Today (Monday) we headed into town to get a haircut. we went to one of the places that Piret might get her hair done for the wedding. I got the same old thing it cost me 5bucks and Piret went for a simple trim and that cost 10 so all up still less than what i would have paid in NZ. We then meet up with our Wedding Photographer which was kind of random as Piret’s sister used to go to school with her so that was good that Piret kind of knows her a little bit more. She seems to cost a bit more than the other people we found on the internet but we still think we will use her as her Photos looked really good and also her knowing us (well piret) is a pretty good thing. She also said that she likes to get to know the people more so she wants to meet up a few more times before the wedding so guess we will make a new friend haha WAHOO I like getting new friends!!!!

Tomorrow we are leaving at 6am to train to Tallinn. We are going there for a night so Piret can meet her Dress maker and also so we can do a bit of sightseeing!!! So we are back from there on Wednesday night. Then we will have to start thinking about packing as we leave eesti this weekend for a week in sweden then onto UK wahoo very excited about UK
New Photos are also uploaded under the Otepaa Album

Otepää/ Ilvesteade

We didnt end up going to Pirets sisters batch as we got a phone call on Tuesday night saying that one of Pirets friends could pick us up and take us to her place in Otepää for a few nights. So she picked us up and we got to her place around 9pm after some kinda fast rally driving. I used to think woman couldn't drive but this girl could!!! she got her brand spanking Toyota hilux nice and sideways a few times around the gravel roads and i have to admit she had total control i was very impressed!!!

Once we dropped our bags she asked if we wanted to go hunting, i was "hunting with a gun" she was like "yep" so she went and got her two guns out of her room one a double barrel shotgun and then the other was her biathlon gun which is pretty much a .22 but a bit more flash and light weight. So Piret, me, Trinn (pirets friend) and trinns flat mate headed bush, the hunting involved sitting in the car everyone looking out the windows and spotting whilst driving slowly around all theres country back roads, mean while Trinn sat in the front seat with her loaded shotgun ready haha kinda scary really!!! We were hunting for Deers, foxes and Mouses lucky for them we didn't find them. If we had of Trinn said she has to exit the car before she can shoot as those are the laws in eesti, so if you ask me even if we did find one by the time the truck stoped she got out aimed at the deer or what ever it was it would have been well gone. Well anyway after not finding anything and was getting a bit to dark to see anything we headed back. On the way we stopped off at the cross country ski biathlon place where they have the shooting range, so got to try and hit the targets that they have (has 5 black circles and you get 5 bullets in the mag each time u hit a target it turns white) well i got 10 shots 2 mags and i got umm well one so i kinda sucked, Trinn and her friend would either get them all or they would only miss one i dont think Trinns flat mate has seen some one who sucked so much hahaha ohh well who cares that two girls showed me up im sure Piret was impressed by my skill.

The next morning Trinn had to go to Valga which is about 70km south. Now Trinn owns her own business and from what i can gather she is doing pretty well from it she chops (ok well not her probably one of the 12 that work for her) down all the trees and bushes below the power lines all over eesti. So she was heading to Valga to meet somebody to look at a tractor. So let me Recap this girl Trinn, she drives a Big Hilux ute she doesn't does drive it she rallys it!!! she hunts!!!! and she works heavy machinery so yeah shes kinda more a man than me!!! Anyway back to the story about driving to Valga it was decided that i was going to drive, im still not to sure why either they wanted to laugh at me or well they said it was so i could drive the truck for when piret and i drop her off!! so i drove the 70km there and then around Valga trying to find the tractor shop i only stalled once which is pretty good for me!!! Piret and i did a little bit off shopping whilst waiting for trinn to finish. Once she was done we drove home again so kinda a pointless trip for Piret and i but i have to say i had alot of fun driving the truck so i have already told Dad that on my return i might take his truck from him (i think i can keep dreaming)
Once we got back Piret and i went for a run around the Cross country ski tracks, Otepää is Estonia's main winter resort place with lots of ski tracks and so on!! They have just finished one of those massive ski jump things man after seeing how steep and high they are i have a new respect for those jumpers they have big nuts that all i can say!!!

After running Trinn took us to a local lake for a swim was kinda cold but after a while body went numb so was kinda refreshing!!! A few beers that night and thats about all we did.

Thursday Trinn went to work with one of her workers so i got to drive the truck all day, so we went and saw a Big old manor which was really nice on the outside but kinda run down inside they are in the process of doing it all up. the price tag to get married there was a bit to high for Piret and i!!! We then went to some random wooden tower in the middle of no where, had quite a cool view from the top thou!! Then was running time, we drove another few km down the road to a lake where piret and i are to be doing a running race next weekend so we thought we should scout out the track. was quite cool track but i think the race is going hurt quite a bit as there are 3 nice steep climbs and i think all my climbing power from NZ has now gone!!!

Friday morning we left early to Poliva to one of Pirets other friends, got there at 9am and then seemed to do nothing in till 3pm when we had to catch a bus out to Orienteering. The event we were going to be at all weekend was called Ilvesteade its a 3 day relay event where each day adds up to give overall winner. Day one however everybody in your team starts at once so one big mass start. I had a shit race as normal and finished well behind the winner i came back in 16th but was 7th fastest on my course (they have different course for runners to try and stop everyone following each other) It was pretty shit thou because a few controls everybody would have the same, and now the first common control was my number 2 and i stuffed the first so was right in the middle of the pack and got to this control to find one control (normally they would have a few controls to allow people to flow through and not have a traffic jam) well then i had to wait around 2mins just to get the control everybody would keep pushing and shoving so by the time i got there i was so far behind the leaders already!!! about 3/4 of the way around the course it started to rain ok well rain isnt the word for it i should really say hailstorm!!! there was so much hail the ground turned white !! and lucky for me a was running through rather open forest so i was in a bit of pain with all this hail smashing me in the head!!! luckily thou it stop just as i got the the last control!!!
Day two was a normal relay and i was first leg, once again thou i hate orienteering had such a shit run i really do wonder why i do such a stupid sport!!! i came back in 20th but the funny thing is on my course i was 4th fastest and 2nd place out of the leg one runners so all the fast runners on leg one had the same course which is kinda shit but ohh well i sucked today so doesn't matter. After the race Piret and i were supposed to be going to another event but we both didnt want to cos were just to tired so piret went to tell the guy that we weren't going to go and were going back to poliva she then returned to the bus that i was waiting in to tell me that we were now going to the other event. GREAT!!!!! just what i feel like doing another orienteering race!!!!!! So after 3hrs of driving we got to the other event. the reason we had to go to this event was couse it was some sort of area champs. not just for orienteering but all sports so Pirets area really wanted her and i to go so there would get some points!!! So we went and did our races and well what do u know i sucked even more than in the morning i lost over 30min on mistakes!!! it was such green slow forest, i was sooo close to pulling out as i was doing very bad and was very tired but kept on going. i finished in a time of 78min to find that i had won by 2min shows how good everyone else must be if i lost around 30min and still won!!! the best part about going to the event is we got paid by the Area that we were racing for we each got 100eek (im not going to tell you how much NZ that is) and a free dinner so for the first time i have been paid to orienter!!!

The last day of Ilvesteade i was again running first, the reason i always run first is mainly cos my team sucks and its more fun to run first with others than by yourself way behind!!! so anyway back to todays race, well the start of it was an up hill slog i felt kinda tired before i started but once running i seemed fine. I for once had a good run and was up with lead pack a min behind the lead runner i finished at the back of a 5man pack and was in 9th place. I had 2nd fastest time on my course so was happy with that and knowing that after all my races in eesti i finally have had a good one even if it is my last one as we have no more oing before we move to UK.
I felt pretty shattered after all my races so once we got home was happy to sit in front of the tv and do nothing. well it was cool intill the sports news came on!!! and there was the start of todays race!!! and well the camera centered itself on this runner that jumped to avoid running into a tree then tripping on a log and falling over, and well yep that person was me!!!! so now i can say i have been on TV for orienteering!! even if it was cos a fell over but still im famous here in Essti, im sure when i go to town tomorrow people are going to come up and ask for a autograph.

For those who want to watch my famous video go to this link http://sport.err.ee/ then on the search bar type in Ilvesteade then click "otsi" now look for "Ilvesteate võidu noppisid Põlva Kobras I ja Orvand New Balance" click that then there will be a picture of some lady click one her and the video should load