One way to the UK?

 Loch Ness Scotland   Hamish the Highland Cow, Scotland

 Naomi and Lija Latin Festival    Naomi, Mara and Lija Rise Festival     Mara and Lija O2 Wireless Festival

 Brighton Pier    Gill, Naomi and Lija Brighton Walkie    Gill, Naomi, Pam and Lija Brighton    Gill and Naomi Brighton Hostel (first drinks)

Okay so it’s been almost two months since I properly wrote in my journal, so hopefully this entry won’t seem too rushed but I want to update everyone and also get up to speed on current happenings…

So returning from Turkey coincided with the end of the 6-month rental agreement Mara and I had with Keymoves, in Bromley-By-Bow. I initially was very settled in East London; had gym, trainer, people to see, kickboxing nearby etc, BUT anyhow, due to some personal circumstances and also considering I had my new job at the NHS in Victoria, I decided it would be a good time to move onto the other side of London – almost another world away! So I moved to Battersea Park – Battersea and Chelsea run into each other in South/West London, and are quite the posh area to live, however, I’m actually in Battersea Park Estate so a bit like being ‘on the other side of the tracks’!!! Many shops and just a short bus ride to Clapham Junction which has loads of things there; however it’s on the National Rail which isn’t so bad being 1 stop from Victoria (work), however the trains aren’t nearly as often as a tube and so lately I’ve instead been taking the bus each morning to get to work! It’s quite nice to be above-ground with fresh air and being able to read a good book on the way into work.

So I moved house and hence gym, local shops etc all change also. I now shop at ASDA on weekends! It’s quite a cheap shop for those who don’t know. I guess I’m lucky that London offers flexibility to change things in an attempt to make life in general seem better… so after a few hectic weeks involving situations and moving house etc, my boss called me into his office for a ‘bringing to task’ speech, where he told me I hadn’t been performing well over the past few weeks and that I seemed to be reading the paper or being online during the days, and also coming and going at all different times… so I agreed to one point only, that I had been slack lately and that would change, however I stook my ground on the other points! I am employed specifically as his Personal Assistant, and explained that if he doesn’t give me work to do, then I have no work to do! Hence why I read the paper or go online. I also explained that seeing as he doesn’t have much work to do, to pass onto me, that when he does actually give me work I make it drag out over the day to stop me being so bored with nothing to do come the afternoon! I also explained I’d only ever taken two lunchbreaks since I started working there, and I start at 08:30am every morning, then no lunch break, and so that’s why I leave ‘early’ at 4:30pm, which is STILL working an extra hour each day! And I showed him my flextime sheets recording all my movements. So ‘two up’ to him. I stated my intention to resign the following week. And so for the last month every morning I begin by asking him for work… and asking again before he goes out to a meeting, and also telling him when I come/go for lunch on those occasions! Gosh without being too slanderous, he seems weak of character, or at least uncomfortable trying to ‘bring someone to task’ as he was with me. The whole 15 minute conversation he sat there with this smug/weird smiling thing on his face and was quite surprised when I said ‘yep that’s fine, I agree I’ve been distracted lately and I’ll pick up the slack right away’ he was like ‘ohh. okay’. As my HR officer said anyway, he can’t actually threaten me with ‘you’ll be gone in a few weeks if this doens’t change’ as the NHS and all Government employees have a certain list of things which needs to be done for a grievance or dismissal! You would think he would know those things…. obvioulsy not. IT’s strange too, as he didn’t seem to realise you need to tender for certain works to be done until another team member explained it to him… Heaven forbid we are actually audited or someone applies for certain freedom-of-information documents as my boss and some external people would probably be done for some form on insider trading!

Anyhow as much as I love the health department; I definitely prefer the NT/Australian system which just seems to work and isn’t so disjointed as here, and I definitely prefer a more ‘hands on’ type role, like in a Hospital or CEO office, and working with people who actually have healthcare experience. Most of my current Healthcare for London team has never even worked in a bloody hospital of GP clinic, and yet it’s them, along with pan-london consultations that are deciding the 10 year plan of healthcare in London!!!

Well, ANZAC Day in Gallipoli was definitely an experience of a lifetime and one I would encourage any Aussies and Kiwis, even Turks and Brits to attend (oh and the French), as all of those countries lost men fighting for their freedom, and ours.

We travelled on the Lets Go bus down to the Galipoli peninsular and due to the very early start, to try and beat traffic, our leader Fahrid was giving a generally good speech abou the history of the war, however he was going about it the long way and as many people were asleep, he restarted it later when he’d woken up everyone (clicking noise in mic!) so I think I heard like four hours of the same speech… anyhow I did hear some very interesting things at times which was great. I never really studied history at school, and primary schools only really cover the discovery of Australia, so it was good to hear all about the war and from a turkish person giving both the Turkish and Australian sides of the story. We toured around the peninsula and the memorial sites and then went to the war history museum before heading to the BBQ and then back to ANZAC Cove at about 5pm to find our spots for the night. WE thought we had arrived quite early, 12 hours before the service, however pretty much all the grass area was already taken up with people and after searching around a group of girls from our tour bus (Q or 124) settled into a position in the grand-stands. Not the most comfortable 12 hours, however, when you think what the soldiers went though everyone stopped complaining pretty quick. The area was pretty well set out, albeit a bit small for the crowds of people who continued to arrive well into the night/morning. The toilets were constantly cleaned, there were food and drink stands and clothing/blankets for sale; I bought a singlet with the ‘words’ of General Ataturk, to weep not for your sons, for they are resting on friendly land… (I’ll copy the actual wording as it’s quite nice and I was surprised I never learnt about it). All throughout the night, which was freezing (literally below zero) there were interviews with veterans, screenings of various interviews and shows commissioned for ANZAC day and the AUS/NZ military and airforce bands keeping everyone entertained with the songs that soldiers would have listened to prior to setting off for Turkey. My favourite was ‘run rabbit run rabbit run run run, don’t give the farmer his fun fun fun, bang bang bang went the farmer with his gun, so run rabbit run rabbit run run run’!

Apart from the screenings and entertainment, I think generally, everyone had a sense of quiet and realised we were standing and/or lying on hallowed ground; above the place where thousands of men died and where their blood stained the same soil. ANZAC Cove is really quite beautiful, but it’s still so easy to visualise the hardships faced by the soldiers as the cliffs look so daunting; with years of erosion showing too.

TBC

Well I’ve just written so much, and waffled on about Istanbul and it’s sights that I’m going to regather my thoughts before writing about my actual ANZAC day experience

The Wednesday morning (our day 3, but tour day 1) was an early start, where Mara and I were near-close to being first for breakfast. Yum, the hotel (4*) did put on a good breakfast. The only problems with the Hotel was the smelly (yukk) bathrooms (the water smells) and the fact that the advertised ‘roof pool and bar’ and ‘gym and sauna’ were still under construction! Anyhow, back to the tour. We got on the bus and headed up to The Hippodrome. The site is now flat and landscaped, and houses the last three standing pillars of the original Hippodrome; what was once a giant stadium like the Coliseum or a modern day football stadium. One pillar stands at almost it’s full height, the next bronze one is now tiny and missing the meduse heads which used to top it (one head lies in London’s museum), and the third pillar is only half it’s original size and missing all the bronze panelling it once had. Next we went to The Blue Mosque (westerners call it that) which was interesting to see inside of (chandelliers very low to the floor… muslims must all be short) and cushy red carpet. After the Blue Mosque we walked across (directly) to Hagia Sofia which has been rebuilt three times in it’s lifetime. Hagia Sofia was first an Orthodox Church. Then it was turned into a Mosque – the muslim people never destroy a church, but rather take down the crosses etc, and plaster over religious mosaics. Hagia Sofia is now a museum, showing both parts of Orthodox and Muslim faith. It was really interesting to hear the stories about Hagia Sofia, including how the Muslims still believe there was a Jesus and Mary Magdalen and they respect them as religious figures – you never hear about that, usually only hear about Allah and the bad things related to muslim/islam. After seeing the mosque and Hagia Sofia, we broke up for lunch, where Mara had some issues with getting money from a bank and after a quick? phonecall back to her bank in London, we realised it was the specific bank that didn’t like her card Grrr! Anyhow after lunch we met up all together again, and went down to The Underground Cistern. Years ago, Istanbul was running low on fresh water, so a giant underground cistern was built to house water which was shipped in to the city. It now is only about 4 foot deep and home to goldfish (and tourists). The lighting, obviously added for the tourists, gives it a great effect. There are some interesting pillars in there; one carved with ‘the eye’ that is weeping to respect those who died building the cistern, and two which have Medusas head carved at their bases.  Following this, we boarded the bus which took us to the Bosphorous River for our cruise. The cruise showed us many sights of Turkey, and we also figured our the European and Asian sides of Turkey – took a bit of map-searching with a group of people and some constructive arguments before we all figured our what was where! On the cruise we also saw all the thousands of giant Turkish flags which are everywhere – talk about national pride! And we met a group of Aussie guys which we remained friends with over the coming days of the tour. Also found out two of them also live in ‘the Ghetto’/East End, just one DLR stop from our Bromley-by-Bow house!

After the cruise, we headed as a group to the Grand Bazaar, and Mara and I took the guys through parts of it, and then down to the Spice Market to look at foods. We got the tram back to the hotel. Nothing like integrating youself to a country by using their public transport system so we always make an effort to do so! We all had about an hour break before having to meet at 8pm to walk to our Turkish Experience Dinner. Hmmm much to be desired on that experience. There were 160 people there from OnTheGo all together. The dinner entree was nice, a mezzee platter, the main was crap (cold chicken anyone?) and the desert was five pieces of fruit (as in five slices, not five whole pieces). And then drinks were extra, as was tipping the ‘prostitute’, I mean, the ‘belly dancer’ they had on first! Argh what a cringe-fest! Even the guys were embarrased at her antics. The second act was a karakoe singer, past her prime (mutton dressed as lamb) who was singing half english and half in turkish… the third act was traditional dancers. Finally something worth watching. It was really well done, and the costumes were nice, and authentic and the dancers even got people up to learn how to do it too! Then back came karaoke lady, and then anothe rbelly dancer – this one actually knew her art well and was excellent, and didn’t go around asking for money or hanging herself all over the men. The best part of the dinner was meeting the girls at our table (table of 4 and we didn’t get to choose who we sat with) – Mina and Leah are lovely girls and both live in Bristol so we’ll be catching up soon (tomorrow actually from when I’m writing this, now a week after Turkey!). So we makde two lovely friends from the dinner and everyone left pissed off that it had cost 30 Pound each, which converts to 70 Lira each, which is more than what Mara and I spent in our whole week there!

After dinner the place turned into a nightclub, but everyone (and I mean everyone) cleared out! Mara and I along with Trev and Ben decided to have Shisha and upstairs from the restaurant – we decided on an apple one. It wasn’t too bad – I think the strong apple tea kind of detracted from the weaker apple shisha taste, however a good Turkish experience. First and last time I ever smoke though! The next morning was an early, 5am wakeup to head to Gallipoli.

Quite a while ago, after attending services for years in Alice Springs, I decided I really wanted to attend the ANZAC Day memorial this year, in Gallipoli (Galibolu), Turkey. After searching through TNT Magazine Mara and I decided on OnTheGo tours and their 5 day ‘Digger’ Silver package. It was a holiday to look forward to, but not just in a ‘happy holiday’ type but rather as something respectful towards the soldiers who have given their lives over the years, and those still fighting what seem to be ‘other people’s battles’ today.

So, on Sunday 21 April Mara and I caught the latest tube from our East End (Bromley-by-Bow) to Heathrow, arriving just after midnight and settled in for a few hours sleep, at the airport (very uncomfortable), with a heap of other people also waiting for check in to open about 0400 hours. Once it opened and we checked in, we then had to wait around inside the security area for our flight to board. And, being Swiss Airlines it all left on time, like clockwork! The flight was lovely – so much better than the cheapies RyanAir and EasyJet that we usually use. I mean we even got fed on the Swiss flight without having to pay extra haha (such little luxuries). We changed over in Zurich and arrived in Istanbul about 1330 where we were met by the OnTheGo staff and put onto their bus into Istanbul city. Well, after telling people THREE TIMES where we were booked into (pre-booked by OnTheGo remember) after being in the bus for about 2.5 hours and arriving at the Fez Travel head quarters (turns out FezTravel, OnTheGo and The Fanatics are all sorta one company for ANZAC Day), that they had forgotten to drop us off, and our damn hotel was THE SECOND ONE FROM THE AIRPORT! So yes, we could have been there two hours ago… Grrr not happy! So we got put into a ‘luxury’ smaller minivan thing and fiinnaally dropped at our hotel. We checked in and a worker carried our bags to the room, which oops, we read later we were supposed to tip him for! Shame we didn’t even have any Lira on us yet and hadn’t read the guidebook completely yet either.

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Okay so a while ago I was feeling a bit down on London and meeting new people (lack of etc) so my friend Ali suggested I join a ‘team sport’ instead of just going to gym… so after much research and looking around I decided on Kickboxing! Not exactly the ‘team sport’ he had in mind but hey – it’s proved enjoyable so far! I was chatting about it at work one day too, so Mandi, my colleague (and temp HR manager) decided to join me on the 8 week beginners level 1 course. I went down ‘for a look’ the night before the classes started and was laughing on first impressions – you walk down concrete stairs and the door says ‘gym’ in graffiti writing, and then once inside it’s a desk in a ‘wire cage’ and then the gym is all exposed brick walls in the basement (hence The Basement Gym) but once you stop and take a look around, you realise the Dojo is quite nice with padded floors and pillars, a ‘ballet’ bar along mirrors for stretching and people always training or sparring in the boxing ring.

The first class was great, our trainer Rob is a lovely guy and always has a smile on his face.. most likely because he’s thinking up new moves to try out and new painful or funny ways of warming us up. Lots of people turned up for the first class at the beginning of April… now we’ve settled into our actual committed group of about 11 people! Always an odd number for some reason as I think one or two cannot make some classes etc. Anyhow it has been great so far, and also a great addition to my normal gym reigime. I’ve been going for one month now, so one more month of Level 1 before the 8 week Level 2 course starts. I’m not sure if Mandi will keep coming after this Level as she said two nights a week of exercise is a bit much (argh). Umm what else? Oh yeah I have my own ‘bindings’ now for my wrists and I don’t know why but I’m the only one in the class with white ones!? That’s just what the gym gave me – good for keeping clean I guess as they can be napisanned/bleached. So yes.. next to purchase is my gloves… still deciding on Black or Green perhaps?

We’ve learnt some pretty good moves so far, round-house kicks, front kicks, side kicks, cross and jab, left hook and right uppercut and an axis kick, duck and slip.. what else? Loads of useful things! So look out anyone who gets in my way when I’m next shopping on Oxford Street! Or walking home for that matter…

Oh so if you want to check out my ‘basement’ gym or the trainers etc, view the website www.paragongym.co.uk

Well what a busy time it has been lately – April came and went very quickly. I gave my month’s notice on the 18 Holsworthy sharehouse and am still trying to get the agents to give back my deposit, or even answer our phonecalls for that matter…

Umm so yes a few nights were spent searching ‘gumtree’ for new digs, and I decided to stay in the Ghetto, on the East End of London rather than move to where all the Aussies are. It might be more sociable, I might spend more nights and money at the pub, but really if I wanted to be around that many Aussies I would move back home!

One of the other reasons April went tso fast was that I took up Kickboxing – oh and went to Turkey for ANZAC day – both deserve their own entries which will be forthcoming.

Today, Sunday 6 April the Olympic Torch came on it’s journey through London. Naomi, a colleague of mine from when I used to work for 2012 and I met up at Canary Wharf (with me running late) JUST in time to see the Flame being run by….. the torch-bearer was surrounded by that many bloody policemen and assistance-runners that I barely saw the thing! I was quite disappointed! Instead of trying for a photo I captured some video of the torch running past, however you have to look really hard to see it being held by a little man in red, surrounded by the aforementioned police and assistance runners. Hmm yes, not happy with what we could see!

I guess though, it’s a little understandable after the TV footage that’s been shown all day showing police tackling Free Tibet protestors to the ground when they tried to blockage the torch’s path and also one tried to run up and physically snatch the torch from a runner – so I’d say by the time it got to Canary Wharf where we were waiting, security had indeed been beefed up! Even the rubbin bins around inside the Wharf had been removed in case of terrorism attacks etc.

Still, it’s a good thing to watch – the Olympic torch in London, as the next time it will be here is for ‘our’ very own Summer games in 2012!

Well that’s about it for now – I’m finishing watching the second half of a great show “Casualty 1907” which is a film of The London Hospital in the time of plague and medicating patients with brandy and of people dying left-right-and centre. The London is still located just up the road from where we live in East London…. hopefully things have changed a bit since then, but after working for the NHS a few months I’m not completely convinced! hahaha especially as my friend had his head operated on last week and when going back to get the dressing changed he got in trouble for not bringing back his own bandage to re-use… hmm sterilisation standards anyone?

Well it has been done – I have survived a British winter. Last Sunday morning at 0200 hours we had to wind forward the clocks one hour, so that we now have more hours of sunligh, and nicely the sun has actually been shining a bit lately too… (except for today!). It’s almost like over the winter people around the place bred or immigrated into where we live in Bromley-by-Bow… now-days when I get home from work and gym there are kids EVERYWHERE, playing games on the football (soccer) pitch near our house and kicking the ball around in the street and in the green area in front of our block of flats… I seriously wonder what the kids did and where they were kept in the winter!

So yes it’s now british summer time, however, after a nice Friday of about 17 degrees celcius where I took a lunch break just to actually experience some warmth, today London awoke to SNOW! Yep that is right, snow on the ground and still falling from the sky. So now I can almost say I’ve seen everything in terms of weather whilst walking down Oxford Street in the centre of London. It was unusual to see and feel the snow falling and then the sun out for a brief spell, and then more gentle snowflakes falling down!

Last night (Saturday), Kristy and I were supposed to have a quiet night in at her house after she’d had a few drinks at the Wheatsheaf with her fellow rugby team members… I was planning on heading to that side of town about 5pm, however fell asleep after reading some of my new book (People of The Book) and didn’t end up getting the tube until 7pm… and Kristy was still at the Wheatsheaf so I went and met her there! On arrival, she was pretty drunk! Oh lordy – so there went the quiet DVD night haha. I didn’t drink much at all (very restrained of me I know) but still stayed out until about half three in the morning, where Kristy and I along with Chris (Lilly) and Adam headed home from Sandy’s house (we all ended up back there as low-and-behold the pubs were all closing). Anyhow it was a good night! Kristy and I were out like the lights and as I said, woke up to snow this morning! We got dressed and braved the cold, actually the winds and snowflakes to get to a little breakfast place in Clapham Common and I enjoyed a very lovely Eggs Benedict with hashbrowns and grilled tomatoes, as well as bottomless cups of tea! Mmm just the right thing for a Sunday.