(Un)popular

Hi Folks - I'm definitely getting more used to blogging as it only took me 10 minutes this time to work out how to post a message! As Emma previously mentioned, many thanks for all of you who were able to make the party last Saturday. We had a great time catching up with you all and are very grateful for all the cards & presents we received. Special thanks to Ross and Zoe who travelled up from Nottingham for the party. I must admit, i struggled to even drive to the supermarket on Sunday never mind the 7 hour drive down south.

One common theme which started to emerge as we were getting slightly drunker was that folk started to mention that they thought we were lucky swines for sneaking off for 3 months. Well don't worry, we'll try and keep our blog up to date so that you don't miss out on any of our adventures - it will almost feel like you're with us!! Even folk at work have started to get their own back on us by piling up the work just so that we kept busy before we head off. Honestly, i think we deserve a wee holiday....

Been busy this week with our final preparations for the off. Having realised that New Zealand is a fairly big place and that the wee stretch of water between the two islands is in fact a 3 hour ferry, we've decided to add to our carbon footprint by taking an internal flight rather than the 20 hour drive. I wonder how many other times our geography skills will let us down?

Finally, there was quite a bit of interest in my reference to the global economic downturn in my last post - well OK only one person (hi Dad) - who was particularly interested in why the pound had fallen so much recently. Well it's due to a combination of factors such as the difference in interest rates and the financial market's perception of the strength (or rather lack) of the UK economy, which is influenced by the state of the public finances. In addition, certain currencies such as the US dollar are seen as "safe havens" during periods of turbulence, which partly explains why the pound has depreciated against the dollar in recent months. There you see, those 5 years at uni weren't wasted after all!

Anyway, catch up with you all later. Ricky