One way to the UK?

To begin with, Germany has weird keyboards and the z and y keys are swapped around so forgive me if some of the words seem weird as I’m just going to type everything to try and fill you in on our trip so far!

So the travelling party consists of myself (planner haha), Elissa and Mara. On Friday 31 August we woke up early, stuffed the last few items into our packs, threw out a few more items from the packs (including my black fleecy jacket as it wouldn’t fit easily) and then headed for the tube station, where we caught the underground to Waterloo Station. From Waterloo Station we caught the Eurostar from London to Paris, and then Paris to Nice. In London we got there exactly 30 minutes before the train departed, so rushed through securiy and customs as fast as possible, and then waited for the train to be ready for boarding! Eurostar was quite nice, and we had a four-seats to ourselves around a table which was nice (and what we booked). On arriving in Paris, we had 45 minutes to get from Gare Du Nord (North) to Gare De Lyon (South), so we ran from train, lined up to get our RER (Paris metro) tickets and then went through the gates to find the metro train… well Mara & I went through the gates, but Lis got stuck on the other side!!! She put her ticket in, but the gates opened and closed really quickly and she didn’t get through them!!! So she had to run and find a station helper to get her through, and we were panicking a little at this stage about the time! So we ran downstairs to get the RER, and then on the actual platforms the letter signs disappeared! So we watched our train depart, and then had to wait for the next one, onlz 5 minutes behind. So we got to Gare De Lyon and rushed up all the stairs thinking we would just make our train… but once again we had to wait in lounge area looking at the TV screen for our platform to come up! Finally did, and we were on our way to Nice! We arrived in Nice in the late-afternoon, which was nice as it gave us time to look around the Hotel area and to visit the beach — pebble beach mind you, so not the nicest thing around but the ocean colour was absolutely amazing!

I’m doing pretty well with this weird keyboard! Just taking me ages to type!

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Well, I cant believe I forgot to write about it, but on Tuesday night after work Mara, Lis and I headed into the city to see the musical QUEEN – We Will Rock You! I got Lis her ticket as a late birthday present :o)

Well the musical was interesting to say the least! It was written by Ben Elton, the sci-fi writer which explains a bit of why there were weird scenes and costumes and a bizarre story line right from the word go… but the songs were great, and the band was excellent…I thought the dancing was a bit second rate, but otherwise the whole musical was great! The ads for it all said it got a standing ovation every night, and it did Tuesday night as well. We probably could have gotten into the spirit of the musical a bit more if we were not surrounded by Korean?) people who barely spoke English and most likely had very little idea about Queen and their famousness! But ya never know.

Anyway, just remembered I had to write about that! Will update more as soon as I can – currently in NICE as we started the Europe trip today, but the keyboard I am tying on is all wacky with letters not in their usual places, but the configuration changed to Aussie one… so it is like typing blind with no signals and no abbreviations as I cannot find the apostrophe key or anything!

Okay, so we’re getting a little excited about heading off to Europe very early tomorrow morning….. I would be more excited if I could fit everything I wanted into my pack!!! It just seems so damn tiny and I thought I had everything in, until I turned around and on my bed was still pajamas and black jacket and big Europe2007 Guidebook and a hair-dryer and pair of shoes (they have been ditched) but I need to try fit everything else in – well ok maybe the hairdryer can stay behind!?

Well last week, on Saturday Mara and I ventured around Bethnall Green, Whitechapel and then Rotherhithe to see and drop off various items and also to purchase some strap on sandals – which we did. Only thing is they are suede inner sole which means not much rain or walking in water in them.. oops. Uh well, they will suffice! Sunday we journeyed out to Heathrow (takes like an hour!) and then waited and waited for Lis to arrive out of customs (we had a iced chocolate…) and then she arrived, so we headed back home on the long ride – complete with jokes about the stop ‘Cockfosters’ at the end of the Picadilly Line (hahaha)! Sunday evening we headed to Brick Lane for some REAL Indian food, and got hassled the hell out of by the annoying hecklers trying to get us into THEIR restaurants! Lis and I crakced it at one guy who chased us across the bloody street, so anyhow we ended up eating at a really nice place which was quiet out the front and the men weren’t hassling us. It was nice and so not very expensive either! A lot cheaper than the silver-service Indian Mara, Ali and I had at Clapham last week, prior to watching the SImpson’s Movie (Bourne Ultimatum was sold out already).

Monday, Bank HOliday over here, we let Lis sleep in a bit, did some packing and cleaning, then headed to Notting Hill to see some of the huge Notting Hill Carnival! It’s sort of like a mardi-gras full of loud music, trucks with huge speakers followed by hundreds of well-costumed people wearing not much! Bright colours and millions, 2 million to be exact, of spectators. At some points to get thru the crows the only way was to join a conga line!!! Lots of fun. Mind you, gang problems in London meant that about 5 people got stabbed and 2 got shot at the carnival at some point over the two days!!! It’s kinda like being back in Alice ;o)

Monday night we met up with Terry, John, Kattoo and Johnny and the very nicely took us out for dinner. Found a really nice Turkish place and that guy from the Kenny Movie (toilet cleaner…) was there – Mara spotted him, I would have had no idea! Anyway, very nicely Terry and John paid for the whole dinner too, so thanks again to them for that. It was most unexpected, but very nice. They’re back in the States now, so I’ll have someone to drop by and visit on my way home when I journey that way!

So, it was a great long weekend :o)  Tuesday I had a Health & Safety Training day so that I can get my CSCS card, which will allow me to safely be at and work at the London 2012 Games construction site. Should be interesting! I don’t sit my test until the end of October once I’ve returned from Europe, but I think the questions won’t be nearly hard. I got 39/40 first trial one, and 40/40 second trial one! So I’ll definitely be issued with a hard had, boots (go Timberland) and probably also a fluro vest for when I start on-site! hahaha I will attempt to get photographic evidence!

Yesterday I tied up all the loose ends at work, handed over things to Cath, and left hand-over notes for my replacement temp and so after all that was said and done – I took today off work to pack and show Lis around! LUCKY I did too, cuz I have been packing for hours, like 4 hours this morning and still need to figure out a way to shove those extra things in!!!

Will update from EUROPE!

Hello, well what a hectic rush to the end of this week it has been! I’m not sure why – perhaps because it’s a bank holiday (long weekend on Monday) and because it’s only SIX DAYS until we head off to Europe!!! Lis arrives this Sunday which will be awesome! My friend Terry King from ASH-days is also arriving in London tonight some time with her family, on their way transferring back to the USA so will be interesting to catch up with someone from home!

So this week was busy, and cold and quite miserable weather! Sometimes I love London and other times I hate it and whinge about all manner of things… mostly that most the people are SO rude! It’s quite grating sometimes… people here are obviously not taught ‘excuse me’ at any stage in their life… however as a UK person said to me, if you had to say excuse me to every person you squashed past in London you would surely loose your voice very quickly! Hmm fair enough… but STILL! It really annoys me sometimes how rude the people are. There’s ‘letter writings’ to the free papers at the moment about how people don’t stand up for others when seemingly innocent people are being bashed on the train etc, etc. Others however state that if one person is brave enough to stand up to someone, then generally other Londoner’s will back them up (but there still has to be one brave enough to start with!).

Anyway, the weather for this weekend is set to be nice! And Mara and I went to Salsa dancing on Wednesday again which was great (!) and then for tomorrow night she’s got us free tix for Footloose! YAY! Havne’t seen a stage production for a few weeks now hehe so it will be great to see. Pity Lis doesn’t get here Saturday cuz we’ve got 4 tickets all together! Umm I’ve started packing for the big holiday and just need one more pair of shoes… a practical sandal type that will strap on to my feet so as to not fall off when running laden with backpack etc to catch the bus in time! I have just mailed off the final itinerary for our journey.. nothing like the last minute ;o) –> then again Lis have you even packed yet?!

Well, Thursday two weeks ago now, I got my eyes tested at Specsavers and found that the glasses I brought from home (for use during screen based equipment work) are for someone long-sighted, whereas the new tests showed my right eye as being short sighted! Anyway I got new prescription and bought two new pairs of (designed ooohh) glasses for £125.00 as the shop has a 2-for-1 deal on frames for a while. I also got the ‘ultraclear’ stuff put on my lenses for screen based equipment again which is great. My eyes haven’t been as bad this week but then again I think I just spend too much time staring into my screen some days!

Monday and Tuesday last week I went to gym (try get my ££ worth of membership) and Wednesday Mara and I went to Salsa classes at Jongleurs, which is a bar that also does comedy and Salsa classes. It was awesome! So definitely going back there! The class was quite good, the poor girl in my little group (1 teacher, 2 beginners) has never danced in her life and had some issues with ‘step back’ as in, she kept stepping forwards… hrmm… oh well! Probably made me look better next to her ;o) hahah. The class part was good, and then putting the new steps (basic steps, no hands/arms or flair yet!) was really fun! After the class (about 2 hours) it was then time for everyone to ‘freestyle dance’, like grab different partner everytime the DJ says “switch” and so it’s a good way to learn different moves from people. As a beginner the ‘hand signals’ really help. The guy always has to lead in Salsa and each position has a different hand position on the chick’s back or arm or hip so you just have to concentrate on those and the steps flow freely (well that’s what’s meant to happen anyway)!. So yes, looking forward to more of that dancing.

BankSA is SO peeing-me-off at the moment! Had issues last week where I had to PHONE Australia from my mobile and it cost me £14.00 of credit to get my online banking reinstated after the idiots stuffed up my normal banking cards, and now TODAY I tried to book the last of my OS/Croatia flights and accommodation and the bank is blocking the transactions! I’ve made like 12 OS accommodation bookings thru the same website lately, and I told the idiots on the phone I was in London, and now ARGH! Very annoying!!!!! Will try fix first thing in the morning, again, when the call centre in Adelaide wakes up.

Well, Friday night I arrived into Snow Hill Station in Birmingham, jumped into a taxi and headed towards the Cadbury Factory, where Aunty Gill (Dad’s cousin) was having her 50th birthday party! Unfortunately the party wasn’t inside the actual factory but across the road in the ‘suites’ they hire out for events. I got dropped off, and called Aunty Gill who sent out cousin Fiona to collect me and take me inside the meet the relatives already there! Well it was an interesting event because obviously I’m related to them, but have never met any of them before and I had so many names to remember! I met Aunty Gill and Uncle Chris, their daughters Fiona and Louise, Great Aunty Mary (my Grandma Walton’s sister) who looks SO similar to Grandma… but a little shorter and with whiter hair, and acts the same as grandma with certain mannerisms etc! I also met Aunty Pat and Uncle John (who have two older boys), Uncle Roy and my cousin Mark (cousin Laura I speak to on email but unfortunately she is currently in Europe and so wasn’t at the party!) and I met Chris’s sister Elaine and her partner Clive and also Uncle Bill, but I will have to clarify how he is related to the family. Quite a character too – 91 years old and still driving and he just bought a computer as he wants to get hooked up to the internet! The other cousin of Dad’s on this side of the family is Uncle Brian who lives in Australia with my cousin Natalie, who looks like Louise! So I had fun at the party meeting the family members, and also other friend’s of Aunty Gill’s and chatted most of the night away to Aunty Pat and Great Aunty Mary! We left the venue, arms laden with Gill’s presents at about 0100 and headed home – where I met Skye the Collie and Millie the cat. Skye liked me but Millie was a bit weary! Anyway I slept well and woke up when Mara messaged me in the morning saying that she has missed her train to Birmingham and would have to wait an hour for the next one! I got up and told Uncle Chris this, so that we all got to sleep in a bit more (instead of being at the station for 0900 pickup).

Saturday, cousin Fiona took Mara and I into the city of Birmingham after breakfast, and we saw all the sights including the ‘floozie in the jacuzzi’ haha which is a big statue of a naked lady in a fountain infront of the city council offices etc. We also went window shopping in ‘The Bull Ring’ precinct and bought some stationary in Selfridges – the shop in Birmingham looks like something from the space age, all covered with huge silver disks on the outside! We also went to a new part of town ‘the Mail Box’ (shopping centre in the old Royal Mail building) and walked along the canals. Oh and we saw the Birmingham beaches!!! FLyBMI (airline) has two ‘beaches’ set up in the city area, just netted off areas with sand and deck chairs and water misters and a beach soccer/volleyball area etc! Great idea – London should do the same!!!

Saturday night Aunty Gill hosted a family BBQ and it was so nice to have the steak, and there was salmon and a lot of drinks and chapmagne and the biggest bowl of nicest tasting strawberries ever!!! Oh and a really sickly chocolate tart and cream to go with them so we were so well fed over the weekend! Mara and I piked it about midnight to go to sleep. Sunday we took Skye for a walk up to the Lickey’s (mountain) to see a view over Birmingham, then returned for Sunday Dinner – full roast with all the trimmings! Thanks so much again Aunty Gill!

Running out of internet time (yeah, not posting from work for once!) but travel plans are going well and I’ll post again tomorrow!

TO begin with, let me just say that last week flew by in a hectic rush and this week has been much the same – very little time to play on the internet and update my blog (so not good!).

Well, I can’t much remember what happened between last Tuesday and Friday… so I thought to start with the interesting stuff anyway! Last Friday I left work early, about 14:30 to get out to Marlebone Station to catch the National Rail up to Birmingham – to meet my rellies there for the first time and also to help celebrate my Aunty Gill’s 50th birthday! So I left work early, thinking I had plenty of time to get the bus up to home (15 minutes) and then get the tube from Mile End to Marlebone (only 1 change along the way) to arrive at the station at least by 16:30, half an hour before my 17:00 train. Well… the bus bit went fine, but as I went to walk down into Mile End station there were people streaming out of it and I was thinking ‘what, rush hour in the middle of the day’, but no, I then overheard a lady going ‘there’s a train on fire, there’s a fire’. So that was the start of another little adventure… I turned around and luckily the #25 bus pulled up, which goes from Mile End to Oxford Street in the city so on I jumped…. the only thing is the bus has to stop so often and goes so slowly!!! SO I jumped off at about Aldgate or somewhere, looked in at the tube station and found the Central Line was now totally stopped because of the Mile End situation…. and so with the bus also gone and time ticking I hailed a black cab and jumped in…. on asking the driver if we could make it to Marlebone by 17:00 he was like Ahahaha… well umm have you seen the traffic? I’ll try love, but no guarantees. So there I sat, in the back of a taxi, lucky I still have nails – cursing London Underground and the city traffic on a Friday and the driver could sense my frustration and kept saying once we’re out of the city blocks we’ll be there in 10 minutes… well his 10 minutes was my 15 minutes and as we pulled up near Marlebone (accross the road, no point fighting traffic to get near the door), I already had my bags on and I opened the door and jumped out, narrowly avoiding being wiped out by a big red bus (!) and chucked £20 in the window and ran for the platform! Luckily I already had my ticket and literally ran straight onto the train, found an empty seat and 2 minutes later it pulled out of the station!!! Phew – adventure plus for the city-scene haha. That was just the trip up there – the two hour train ride went quite fast cuz the guy next to me was obviously from outside of London (no he was, I could tell you his life story) and he kept talking on and on and on! Even when I opened my study book and began reading, if I looked up he would go “soo… as I was saying to mike yesterday, oh that’s my employee” argh! Oh well, can’t say everyone here is friendly so I guess it was nice coming from a stranger! haha.

I will write about my actual weekend on another entry…

Okay so just when you think you’ve caught up on a little bit of life that’s passed by, you lost track of time once again! Shows that I’m obviously busy enough over here for the moment hey!

Well I left off at last Thurdsday – unfortunately when I got home, Mara was feeling a bit ill and not up to travelling to Sutton and then drinking copious amounts of cocktails to help Sarah celebrate her engagement, so we didn’t end up going (sorry Sarah!) but we did chat with her on the phone and promised we’d see her soon! On Friday I bought tickets to The Innocent Village Fete – sounds like something a bit odd, but really it was an old-style fete and day out in the park (Regent’s Park to be exact) hosted by Innocent drinks. You know the little ‘Nudie’ drinks and muesli bars in Australia? Well this company is pretty much the same thing sans muesli bars (it does drinks only, but many many types!). So it was £5 to get in but once inside you could taste lots of free Innocent products and we got free sunscreen, the best thing for Mara and I to take travelling as it’s in little bottles (sponsored by lastminute.com). We ate ‘the best chocolate brownie in the world’ (should have shared one!) and soaked up the nice hot sunshine (27 degrees wow!), looked at all the food stalls, listened to some music and watched some ballroom/jazz dancing and other things. Mara picked up a knitting kit – Innocent is getting people to knit tiny beanies for their bottles of drink, which will then be sold to people in shops (so you can go buy your own back…) and the money given to charity! We then had SPanish Paella (seafood) for lunch followed by fresh watermelon and this goji berry sorbet or something. Wanted a whole coconut to drink but they’d run out by the time we got there! Anyway, it was a good day.

Saturday and Sunday I cleaned my room (OMG!) and made the floor cleaner for little Marty (or whatever the Mouse’s name is…. we think there’s more than one in the house now) and then we headed for Westminster Abbey… closed for Sundays. So we headed towards Buckingham Palace… and we had to walk for ages and then wait an hour (!) for a bus, and then ended up just walking in the heat (28 degrees!) to Victoria station, where we got some lunch snacks from Marks & Sparks and then headed into St James’ Park – nice green grass, some water and a band playing all day in the rotunda… and SO many people! Uh well. We were going to meet the boys (housemates Digby and Brenton) but they’d left for home by the time we got there! Sunday evening Mara stayed home to pack for Jersey (where she is til this Friday) and I headed to Balham for a BBQ with Ali and Ben and some other mates of his – all lovely people.

This week work’s been busy – Cath’s on leave so it’s me and a new temp, and I’m trying to get everything done and train her so Vishnu helped out a bit yesterday, and today Laura’s picking up the formatting and styles really quickly so it’s finally looking better. As Ray my boss said yesterday ‘today is a nightmare, and yesterday (Monday) was even worse!!!’. My computer wouldn’t work Monday morning to start with, and of course we needed things for meetings etc and yes, well lets just say it was a stressful two days! And then I stayed back late both nights to make holiday bookings – not too stressful, for Lis, Mara and I.

This week outside of work was pretty uneventful from what I can remember! It seemed to fly by! Although on Monday morning at 0900 I had my appointment with the National Insurance Number centre people and all the forms etc went fine and so I can expect my number in the mail in about 6-8 weeks, and then my tax return from here is guaranteed! Yay! Always do with a bit of money back from the Government.

I got to wear my bright lime green shoes this week – that was fun! Aggressively green is that they were called haha.

Last night I was at work till almost half seven, booking all the sectors for Mara, Elissa and I to travel around Europe – and also booked the train from London to Nice for us three, and accommodation in Munich to make sure we didn’t miss out (our night there is during Oktoberfest) AND now all I have to do it the other accommodation, and Lis has to book her flight from Venice to London (to get home) and I need to find a train from Venice to Ancona (prior to the Croatia Sailing starting in Split). SO NOT MUCH TO ORGANISE hahaha. It’s not the last minute yet, so all okay.

And I’m off now, stuffed from last night and today I was working frantically ALL DAY (from 9am-4pm, with an hour break for lunch) on a Security document directly with my boss, and I keep spelling ‘in’ as ‘ni’ so I think it’s time to log off the computer, and head out to Sutton (1 hour overland train) to see Sarah to help celebrate her engagement with some girls’ drinks!

Okay so Friday I had work like usual, and then Ash and Mara came down and joined Ali and I for a drink at West India Quay (right next to Canary Wharf) so that was pretty good. Before those drinks, I first had drinks at work with “all” of work to celebrate the mark of only 5 years to go until the Olympics! There was one big cake in the logo shape, and then hundreds of little cupcakes all with the logo on them!!! Oh and free wine etc, etc so that was nice! I tried to steal a picture from the work intranet but it doesn’t let you, so you’ll all have to check out the new London 2012 website instead! http://www.london2012.com/

Oh after work drinks, the weather had changed and I was freezing my tush off, so I headed down to get Ash from the bus stop, and passed by Next (with their last few days of sales on) and bought some nice grey/silver pants with cuffs at the bottom! They’re really nice, and only cost £8.00! bargain! Mara, Ash and I were on the lookout for dinner, and after a while decided to go back near home, to the pub place we’ve seen in Stepney Green (the Tapas place that looks nice ended up being closer to home and a fair walk) but the pub was great! It’s kind of a more upper class pub, but the food wasn’t that expensive whilst still tasting great! We then went to Blockbuster, grabbed a movie and a choccie bar each and headed home.

Saturday we headed into Hyde Park, after a stop by Nottnig Hill where Mara works to get a book in the cheap bookshop (I got The Lost Luggage Porter – detective book) and then we headed into the park (via bus, walk etc) to soak up some suinshine and read. There were so many people with dogs! I miss mine!!!

Sunday, Ash left way early, and Mara and I planned to see some of the Red Bull Airrace, but due to slight misunderstandings etc, etc we didn’t end up seeing any of it! And went for along walk and then home!!!