A Snowy Xmas!!!

So we are well in truly into the new year now and it has been some time since my last post!!! So what has happened, well I had Xmas in Estonia which was really nice!!! We had heaps of snow when we first got there and it snowed on a few of the days but by the time we left it was nearly all gone!!!! Running was really hard over there as it was sooo icy so kept slipping. We went to Tartu for the day to meet up with some of Pirets friends, Annika and Liis (some might know her from when she came to NZ) well anyway it was good to catch up with them and go for a nice run. Even had some chocolate fondue!!! Piret and I spent a bit on money on some news clothes both got new shoes!!! I got two pairs of jeans and P also got a new jacket so she was toasty and warm!!! The time seemed to go so fast and before we knew it we were going home again!!! The trip home was pretty crap as it took ages!!! First we had to Bus to Tallinn which took two hours then wait at airport an hr, fly 3.5hrs, wait an hr, train 2hrs, wait and hr, train another 1.5hrs, then finally bus 20min by the time we got home we were rather shattered.


New years was rather boring!!!! Infact I have to say I was asleep by 9.30pm but then I did wake up for new years but that’s only cos of some dam fireworks!!! And I was lucky enough to have to go to work at 9am on new years day!!! How fun for me!!! Piret got New years day off so she was lucky!!! Since then we haven’t done anything really but work!!! My running over the last two weeks has gone to shit!!! Have got some sort of problem with my calf muscle so have takin some time off running to see if it gets better!!! Been swimming and biking a bit to try and keep my fitness up but yeah still not the same as running!!!

Havent heard anything about the job yet so I am still waiting to hear about that, talked to one lady about it she thinks by the end of the month so hes hoping I guess!!! We have also been planning the wedding a bit laterly have been trying to sort out some invites to finally send out to people!!! So that’s still moving along nicely should really start to do some saving for it :S

Speaking of money I can safely say we have spent all our money on booking a trip to Portugal!!! We are going there for a week at the end of Feb, The reason for this trip apart from trying to get some warmer weather is we are doing two World Ranking events which I need to do so I can try to get into the New Zealand world champs team. So have booked a rental car which should be exciting as everybody says that Portugal is a crazy place to try and drive in so that could be fun!!! Ok all for now!!!

Roma!!!!

After work I ran to Piret's work, the plan was to do a bit of training then go back to train station and head to Liverpool. Our run was cut a little bit short as I was just running in shorts and a T-shirt and it was haling rather hard and I was so bloody cold!!!! Anyway took me about an hour to defrost then we headed for the station. The train ride seemed rather slow could have just been it was so dark outside and couldn’t see a thing. Once we got to station and after talking to some police we decided to walk to our Hotel it didn’t take so too long but was still bloody freezing!! The weather forecast for Sheffield for the weekend was snow and Ice so we were rather lucky to be leaving!!!
We arrived at the Airport with plenty of time thinking there would be a massive line at checking but there was no one so that was a good start. We then went up stairs to the Security check to find a massive queue. It took us like 40min to get past this. They had a fast line if you wanted to pay the 3 pounds. It crazy any little thing where they can possibly make some money they do it!!! Ohh well flights were still cheap!!

We arrived in Rome at 10am, we then had to queue up for 40min for a bus into town so that was kind of stupid too. But we kind of knew that we wouldn’t be able to get into our apartment in till 3pm so we had lots of time to burn. Once in Roma we dropped our bags off at the apartment check in place and then went for our first explore. I wanted to head straight for the Colosseum. Man it was so crazy!!! Such an amazing building!!! It cost us 12 Euros each but was well worth it!!! We probably should have done a guided tour but thought would be more fun to do it at our own speed!!! How anyone could build something like that back then is beyond me!!! Looks like a while ago you could go up way higher on it but now you can only go up one level which still gives a wicked view of both into and look out from the Colosseum. I think we spent around an hour walking around looking at all the different things. Outside there were lots of people trying to sell random things from counterfeit Gucci bags to camera stands. As soon as a police car rolled past they would all bolt it for the nearest cover!!! Then hide till the Police left rather funny.

We then walked from here across the road to the Palatino which is the area with all the ruins of Temples and other Structures, I have to admit my favorite was the “House of Virgins” maybe it was the name but still!! I would have love to have seen all of these structures back in there Prime man would have been such an amazing site!!!! I could keep on talking about all the little things we saw but think I might put some to sleep!!!
We had a look around the Victor Emmanual Monument which was rather large all built for one guy man wish somebody would build me something of that size and to have some horses on the roof would be quality. We then started our walk back to pick up our bags and also key for the apartment. The apartment wasn’t super flash its close to all the man parts so that’s handy. It had 4 rooms which other people would rent out then we would share bathroom and kitchen was quite good cos we never really saw anybody will we were there. We thought we would go out for dinner as it was our first night and we didn’t really know where a supermarket was so thought be more fun to go out. We used our Rome book and found a place nearby which they recommended, it was a Pizzeria which wasn’t too bad, I got the Cabonarra and Piret had a Pizza all helped down by a nice bottle of Italian wine!!!!

The next morning we had to go out for breakfast (Dammit!!!) as we had nothing else to eat, we found this cool little café, I got Crepes and piret had fruit salad had the best coffee since leaving NZ , god it was 100x better than what we get in UK!!!! Once fuelled we started our day of walking!!! We were planning on walking over to the Vatican. We decided to go the longer way there via a few other cool fountains and monuments. The highlight being the Spanish steps and Trevi Fountain. We could see the Vatican from miles away the Church is MASSIVE can understand why it’s the world’s biggest!!! Was pretty cool to walk around such a place, I was blessed by some lady as I took a photo of her and her partner so that was funny. We then ended up talking a bit of a detour which ended up taking us a weeee bit longer than expected. We ended up going down some random track past a couple that looked like there were about to have sex kind of dodgy really. Once safe we carried on to the Piazza Novona which wasn’t quite as good as hoped mainly cos they were trying to fix most of the statues so they were all boxed up!!! Next stop was the Pantheon now that was pretty crazy!!! Just a massive building with a hole in its roof!!!! That night we decided to cook ourselves with some fresh pasta, another Italian bottle of wine was drunk!! We did have some Gelato I had to get the large one just to be a fatty!!!

We started our last day in Rome by going for a nice run. We saw some cool park and thought we would head that way. Well turns out the park was rather boring!!! Not a lot to be seen there and we decided to head back towards town. We went via Piazza Del Popolo which was probably one of my favorite places as it wasn’t so busy it might have been cos it was earlyish in the morning!!! Some random man gave Piret a flower then wanting me to pay for it luckily he took it back cos I think he could tell I didn’t really have any money on me as I was dressed in running gear!! It was rather funny the strange looks we got as we ran past all these tourist spots!!! It’s such a good way to see a place thou as you can cover so much!!! We then went shopping trying to find Xmas presents but yeah we kind of failed!!! Once again we went out for dinner to a restaurant just below our apartment which turned out to be dam nice didn’t drink any wine thou!!!
We then had to catch a bus early back to the Airport to fly home which was rather depressing as work was to follow the next day!!! Ohh well not long till our next holiday I guess!!!

There are tons of photos up on the net aswell to look at!!!

Off for a hoilday!!!!

Work in Sheffield station hasnt been to bad, they have told me to apply for a full time station job (at the moment i just work for a agency helping people where needed) for a full time role means i will be dispatching trains and being aloud to do more around the station it also means i will earn about 10,000pounds more a year so i think i will apply for that see what happens. Dumb thing with it thou is they work 6 day weeks but only 7hrs a day so it will give me good time to train through the day while it is still light!!

Piret and i have booked our xmas holiday a few weeks ago we are going to go back to Estonia for 8days so thats going to be good im just hoping its going to be snowing there at the moment its colder in the UK that there so who knows. We have to do a fair bit of wedding planning while we are there as we have been let down by a number of different places which is very annoying!!!!! So we are leaving UK on the 20th then coming back on the 28th im thinking that we are both going to be working for New years so thats gonna make for a boring new years!!! but ohh well im sure we will find something to do!!!



We also booked to go to Rome next weekend so thats going to be fun!!! we fly out on the 22nd Nov and then come home on the 25th, we have booked some apartment place near the center of town so should be a good trip!!! not to sure what we will do for 4 days but im sure we will find something im just hoping its going to be a bit warmer that UK!!! Its seems be always be lower than 8degrees and then when u are working on a train platform at 8pm its normally like 3 degrees or less!!!! bloody Freezing!!! Our flights to Rome were like 2 pounds but by the time they charge you taxes, Luggage fees, checkin fees, and every other little thing they can think off its cost a bit more it still wasnt to bad i guess but when you flights say like 2pounds return and then the total cost is like 60pounds its kinda funny!!!

Training has been going well thou, doing some good weeks and having time to run either before or after work makes its easier to get outside and run!!! Im in the process of writing a training progame for myself to hopefully make me faster!!! I brought a new watch to aid my quest it has GPS and also heart rate its pretty cool the stuff you can do on it!!! Piret also got herself a new watch so she is happy!!!