Tram & Paul in the UK

I have started working. I am working for the Barnet Social Services located in Barnet House. The people were really lovely. They had put a welcome sign on the door and in our area. Welcome Tram Lee in Melissa's team. Yeah they spelt my last name wrong but it was still very sweet. The manager is really nice and welcoming. Our team are all londoners and I'm the only Aussie but I'm not the only foreigner in the officer. There are also another aussie, kewi, canadian and south african in the office. Its a very diverse office. They do things a bit different over here and I'm slowly getting used to it. I share a computer with another social worker. Its good to have a computer I was worried that I would do everything by hand. ahhh!! We had lunch at this little cafe near work and had a good gossip. I guess some things just don't change. I hope everyone is doing well. We miss you heaps and promise to post more photos.

Love Tram and Paul

Posted by Tram at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hi Everyone,

Sorry we haven't put up any photos or updates for a while. We've been very busy getting ready for London and now that we're here, we've been traipsing all over the place trying to find somewhere to live. Well, we just found somewhere tonight, and it looks like it will be great so we're both very relieved. Fingers crossed that everything will go alright!

We haven't really had any time to see the sites or anything yet, so that can wait until next weekend when we're all settled. Tram says that we'll be heading off the Wimbeldon... should be fun :)

The one thing we've seen, we first thought it was a palace, but I think it is actually the London Library or something. There was lots renovations or something going on but it looks very huge and old.

We've also have got very familiar with the Tube system, and are even getting a hang of the busses. We've been travelling all over north london for the last two days.. sore feet :) It doesn't get dark until about 10pm, so sometimes we forget that it's getting late. we've sort of picked up some english lingo, but it havsn't affected our accents yet. I'm fighting hard! I'll never says yoh-gurt... sorry kris!

Anyway, it's Tram's first day at work tomorrow, so we have to go and sleep.

Bye!

Love Paul and Tram

PS we promise we will post the pictures of the last few days in Minnesota and also Berlin and what we've taken so far in London. We will do it when we have an internet connection.

Posted by Paul at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday dear... mandy and john......!!!
happy birthday to you!@#

Love Paul and Tram!

Posted by Paul at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (105)

Well the past week we have been in Minnesota. Minnesota is made up of the twin cities St. Paul and Minneapolis. Minneapolis is referred to as the city of 10,000 Lakes. The lakes are really beautiful. I have been to Minnesota 2 times but both in the winter and the lakes have been frozen, so its really nice to see them in summer.

We have taken my uncles speed boat on to the lakes and had turns driving the boat. Paul had a great time hooning around doing 25 miles/ per hours but my uncles were going 35 miles/per hour. Its the only thing that we can drive since the steering wheel is on the left hand side, the way it should be, but we still had to drive it on the right hand side.

That night we went clubbing. The clubs here are very good and everyone can dance. A funny thing happened at the night club. We asked for some water and the bar tender couldn't understand us. Did you know that you have to tip bar tenders. Its so expensive to go out here. Also, the clubs stop serving at 1am, so you might as well go home. We had a fun night anyway. We are about to go out again tonight.

Last night we went to a Twins baseball match. Twins is the name of the baseball team. They are all fanatic baseball fans. I think its because the Twins are their best sporting team with the most potential of winning something. It was really cool because they had an organ and were playing "take me to the ball game", "baby elephant dance" and all the other ones you hear on the simpsons. There was a 14 years old girl that sang their national anthem and everyone stood silently with their hands on their hearts and some people sang along. It was a really good experience. The Twins flogged the rockies, we think 18 to 8, although the scoring is very confusing.

Their were 18,000 people in the stadium but it can hold three or four times more. The stadium was pretty awesome. I waited till the end to get some autographs of the baseballers and eventually got an autograph of the famous pitcher and a photo from a distance.

We have also been to the Mall of America. Its a huge mall with its own theme park, bars and resturants, and 425 shops. The mall used to be a stadium and was converted into the Mall of America. We also went to a comedy club inside the Mall. There are all sorts of shops in the mall, even a shop that sells garlic products. You can find anything that you are looking for in the store. Paul and I have been shopping with my aunty who is an extreme shopper and got some really nice and cheap clothes. Our feet are really sore from walking around the mall. :)

By the way I also got braids in my hair!!

Until next time. Take care and enjoy the weekend!

Love Tram and Paul

Posted by Tram at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a message to a special friend of ours who is turning 23 today. Happy Birthday Genevieve!! I hope you have a wonderful day. We miss you very much and are thinking of you on your special day.

Love Tram and Paul
xxxxxooooo

Posted by Tram at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hi Guys,

Some more photos for you to look at :) We have heaps more to show you, but there are some from the Beach in LA, 6 Flags Magic Mountain, and the Beverly Hills/Hollywood tour.

Hi Guys,

Some more photos for you to look at :) We have heaps more to show you, but there are some from the Beach in LA, 6 Flags Magic Mountain, and the Beverly Hills/Hollywood tour.

Tram and Halli (second cousin)

The friendly beach patrol at the beach in LA

Laguna Beach

Some rollercoasters at 6 Flags Magic Mountain

Paul in front of the Riddler rollercoaster. You have to actually stand up on this one!

The King isn't dead!

Some hand prints at the Mann Chinese Theatre in Hollywood (where a lot of premiers are held)

Superman and Batman roaming the streets in front of the Chinese Theatre

The Hollywood Sign. Unfortunately, this is a close as we got :(

If you can see, the Hollywood sign was originally HOLLYWOODLAND. It was meant to advertise the name of the area when they were originally selling the land

One of the Beverly Hills signs

The entry too the Playboy Mansion ;)

The "Witch House" in lower Beverly Hills (The Flats, also known as the "Slum of Beverly Hills" because the houses are a lot cheaper, only three to five million)

A scene you might have seen in some movies, eg the opening of "The Beverly HillBillies". The house in the movie is actually in Bel Aire :)

The shop that Pretty Woman got kicked out of

The only Post Office in the United States (and probably the world) that has valet parking

Posted by Paul at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Here are some pictures for your entertainment. We had a great time at Universal. We will post more pictures soon :)

- Tram and Paul

Paul and Tram being eaten by Jaws
Jaws at a safer distance
Paul going Back to the Future
An orangatang movie star having a play fight
Paul takes on the Scorpion King
Universal Studios: we make the sign look nicer
Tram being sprayed by Universal globe
Tram and Paul getting their hands cemented... how romantic :)

Posted by Tram at 04:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (120)

Hi Everyone, Paul here.

I don't have much time to write a detailed entry so here's a summary of what we've been up to for the last few days:

Monday we went to Universal Studios. It was very good, about a million times better than movie world and universal studios in sydney (I think that went broke didn't it?) We did most of the attractions.. all the good ones (I hope). That took all day, and because of daylight savings it stays light until about 8:00. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant that is like a franchise over here, called Buccu (I think). Tram and I and her Uncle had a small meal.. just one, and it was enough to feed about four people. Everything over here really is bigger, although not necessarily cheaper.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we went around trying to find some way to recharge our laptop and my camera because we forgot to bring an american power converter, so we were running out of batteries. We couldn't really get anything, but I realised that we could just use a universal power cord and hopefully the power supplies would be able to handle the voltage, and they could! lucky. So, I have quite a lot of photos to post up but we can't becasue we don't have any decent internet access.. we will wait until we get to England. We then went to a Huntington Beach and Laguna beach for a while.. Tram and her Uncle played Gridiron with some kids and thanks to our holiday at the coast last new year's, Tram knows how to throw a footy and wasn't embarrassed... :) We then went to a mexican restaurant for dinner, very nice and surprisingly cheap. Tram reccommends the Fish tacos :) We overheard a girl talking about going to a Pearl Jam concert that night, so Tram asked them if there were tickets left and whereit was... We went on a bit of an adventure around LA to find it, and eventually did... the only tickets left were right up the back corner of a huge ampitheatre, but we got them anyway and they were awesome... Pearl Jam rock. We've now seen them in Syndey and LA, but not Brisbane hehe. Ashley, you have to see them in ampitheatre.. legendary.

Today we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain, which is a giant theme park about 2 hours north of LA. Tonnes of roller coasters, they are very very good.. There is one called the Riddler where you stand up. very nice :) G-forces are good. Tram even went on two of the roller coasters (there were about 10, but I only went on about 5 because the lines were VERY LONG and we ran out of time)

Anyway, we have to go now, I will give more details some time in the future and post lots of pictures.

Take care everyone,

Lots of love,

Paul and Tram!

PS sorry for typos i'm going fast here :)

Posted by Paul at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tram at the Gridiron

Tram and Paul with the A-Team cheerleaders

Tram and Paul on the Pier at Venice Beach

Tram and Paul being arrested :)

Paul's new Corvette

Posted by Tram at 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Hi Everyone,

We made it after a very long flight from Brisbane to Auckland (2 hour wait) to Los Angeles. We were very tired when we arrived, but we managed to visit some relatives and have a nice dinner.

Today we woke up early and went for a swim and spa in the heated pool at the complex that we're staying in. We then watched half a movie on cable (swimfan and I-Spy) before heading off to downtown to watch an indoor gridiron game.

The game was awesome, and very loud. Americans are all show-offs and love seeing themselves on the big screen. It was a great atmosphere with heaps of music but not much football :) The funny thing was, at half time they had the rugby 7's old boys playing from some college. They were worse than my touch team! We bought some lunch at the game and it was huge. No wonder so many people over here are overweight.

After the game we headed off to Venice Beach. There was heaps of traffic, and it took about half an hour to find a car park. Tram got another henna tatoo (temporary) and we took photos with life guards and on the pier and with the LAPD. Tram suspects that she saw some famous people :)

There was also several street entertainers, and one guy who was doing the robot, but he was so much better than we've seen before. He looked like MC Hammer, and if he was in a limbo competition he would win it very easily.

That's about it so far, it was a very fun filled day. Tomorrow we are off to Universal Studios. We're going to try to put some photos on here, so check them out!

Posted by Tram at 04:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)