The Adventures of Amanda

Flights for 2011 to the UK

2011-03-13T06:33:00.001Z

EK433 - EMIRATES

DEPART Wed 20 Apr 11 02:30

Brisbane International Airport (BNE) INTERNATIONAL

07 hr 45 min

0 Stops Economy

Boeing 777-300ER Confirmed

ARRIVE Wed 20 Apr 11 08:15

Changi Airport (SIN) 1

EK433 - EMIRATES

DEPART Thu 21 Apr 11 09:35 Changi Airport (SIN) 1

07 hr 10 min

0 Stops Economy

Boeing 777-300ER Confirmed

ARRIVE Thu 21 Apr 11 12:45

Dubai International Airport (DXB) 3

EK003 - EMIRATES

DEPART Thu 21 Apr 11 14:15

Dubai International Airport (DXB) 3

07 hr 25 min

0 Stops Economy

Airbus A380-800 Confirmed

ARRIVE Thu 21 Apr 11 18:40

London Heathrow Airport (LHR) 3

EUROSTAR TRAIN

London St Pancras to Paris Nord

DEPART: Mon 25th Apr 2011 - 09:22

ARRIVE: Mon 25th Apr 2011 - 12:47

Duration: 02h25m Train no: 9014

AIR BERLIN Flight: 8155

DEPART Paris (ORY) Thu 28-Apr-11 8:45 am

Terminal S to Berlin (TXL)

Arrive Berlin: Thu 28-Apr-1110:25 am

527 Miles (848 km)

Duration: 1hr 40mn

EASYJET Flight 4687

Berlin Schoenefeld to Rome Fiumicino (Terminal 2)

Dep 02 May 2011 13:55

Arr 02 May 2011 16:00

EK142 - EMIRATES

DEPART Sat 14 May 11 15:25

Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) 4

07 hr 05 min

0 Stops Economy

Airbus A340-300 PASSENGER Confirmed

ARRIVE Sun 15 May 11 00:30

Dubai International Airport (DXB) 3

EK434 - EMIRATES

DEPART Tues 17 May 11 10:25 Dubai International Airport (DXB) 3

14 hr 15 min

0 Stops Economy

Boeing 777-300ER Confirmed

ARRIVE Wed 18 May 11 06:40

Brisbane International Airport (BNE) INTERNATIONAL

.

Ash's zucchini bake

2009-10-03T05:09:00.004+01:00

My sister Ash makes the best zucchini bake ever. It comes out at every family do. Here's the recipe :)

4 large zucchinis - grated
1 onion diced
200g diced bacon
1/2 cup oil
5 eggs
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup SR flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Garnish with herbs such as chopped parsley on top.
Mix it all together and bake till brown - approx 30 mins on 180 degrees in a non stick tray.

DONE!

My flat, renovations

2009-09-28T13:07:00.002+01:00

Most of you will know that I bought my flat back in June. It's at Woolloongabba, it's close to everything and I love it. It seems like a long road of renovations - the tiles and carpet were ripped out, I painted all the walls myself (I now hate painting), the kitchen got a make over, the terrazo floor in the bathroom and mosaic tiles in the shower went bye byes and hello to beautiful porcelain tiles. The electrician was called in - new light switches, double powerpoints, exhaust fan and ceiling fan with remote control. And last but not least, my floors. I have to say - I love the floors - they really bring the living area "together". I thought maybe I had to much black furniture and furnishings, but the floor gives it a modern and warm feel and look and ties it all together. Anyway, I'm really pleased - I only have a few minor things to do now - like get a rangehood for the kitchen, and maybe new vertical style windows for the kitchen and maybe new carpet for the bedroom - but these are just nice to haves / things I can do down the track. Anyway, if you want to see photos of the renovations - all the befores and after, they're here:

View photos of my flat here.

Chocolate mud cupcakes

2009-05-04T12:30:00.001+01:00

Chocolate mud cupcakes (makes 12)

Ingredients
300 grams of chocolate or choc chips
300 grams of butter
5 eggs
115 grams of caster sugar
115 grams of SR flour
icing sugar (for dusting)

Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees.
Place 12 paper baking cases in a muffin tin.
In a medium bowl, set over a pan of gently steaming water, melt the butter and chocolate together, stirring well.
Leave to cool a little.
Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until pale and thick.
Fold the flour into the egg mixture and then stir in the melted chocolate and butter until well blended.
Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
The cupcakes will be soft and gooey in texture and appearance.
Remove tin from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.
Then remove the cupcakes and serve swiftly, dusting them with icing sugar.
Store in the fridge for up to 3 days in an air tight container.

Looking back

2009-04-26T02:20:00.004+01:00

People often ask me - where did you go while you were overseas, so for my own sanity and record - here the are highlights:

Bands I saw:

Tool, Trail of dead, Chemical brothers, Lcd soundsystem, Daft punk, Queens of the stoneage, Spoon, Tortoise, KT Tunstall, Feist, B52s, Groove armada, Presets, Lenny kratvitz, Kings of Leon, Ben Harper, Sigur ros, Radiohead (twice), My morning jacket

Where I went:

Paris twice, Versailles, Berlin, Belgium – Brussells and Leuven, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Highlands, Liverpool, Lake District, Oxford, Bath, Cotswolds, Wales - Cardiff, Snowdonia etc, Brighton, Turkey twice (Istanbul, Kusadasi & Ephisus), Switzerland, Vienna, Greece – Athens & Greek Islands, Egypt, Canada – Toronto & Niagra Falls, New York.

And other fun stuff:

We Will Rock You, Avenue Q, Legoland, Disneyland.. just to mention a few (and that's just the tip of the iceberg) Ok done - phew.

Manda's cookies – the BEST cookies in the world

2009-04-26T01:54:00.004+01:00

These choc ship biscuits are a real hit. The are absolutely delicious and disappear very quickly at my house. If I'm a bit strapped for cash or don't know what I should get someone for their birthday, I will bake up a round of cookies, put them in a takeaway container or gift box and wrap in cellophane. People like it when you take the time to make something for them.

Manda's tip: if you want to try something different (instead of using normal choc chips), try white choc chips and macadamia nuts on top of the cookies!

Ingredients
125 grams of butter (half a cup)
¾ cup sugar
1 packet of chocolate chips (white, milk or dark - whichever you like - you could even mix them up)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 egg (beaten)
1 ½ cups of self raising flour

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

In a large microwave proof bowl, place sugar and butter and microwave for 2 minutes (or until butter has melted)

Stir in beaten egg, vanilla and then flour. Mix well.

Have 2 oven trays or biscuit trays ready with baking paper on them.

With a teaspoon, form small ball shapes and place on the first oven tray, evenly distributed.

Remember they will double in size so give them room to expand.

When the tray is "full", press chocolate chips bits (as many as you want) onto each raw biscuit. Don't squish them flat when you do this – keep them in a ball shape (or reshape into a ball if you've squished them).

Put in the top tray of the oven on 180 degrees for 10 minutes (no longer! Or they will turn out hard as a rock).

While your first batch of biscuits are in the oven, prepare the next tray of cookies.

By the time your first batch is ready, you will have prepared the second tray and can swap them over ie: take the first batch out of the oven, and put the second batch in.

With an eggflip, remove the first batch of cookies from the oven tray and place on cool racks or plates (or a bench lined with baking paper works just as well too). Do not sit them on top of each other.

Keep the baking paper from the tray and prepare the next batch.

Repeat until there is no mixture left.

Eat them like the COOKIE MONSTER! Dum da dum dum dum..

Delicious Date loaf

2009-04-26T01:09:00.000+01:00

This recipe is ridiculously easy and quick and so yummy. It's also pretty good for you too..

Ingredients
1 cup boiling water
1 heaped tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 beaten egg
2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup chopped dates

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.
Line a large loaf tin with Glad Bake.
In large bowl, pour water, butter and vanilla in.
Stir until butter is melted.
Add sugar, mix. Add egg mix.
Add flour and nutmeg, mix.
Add dates, mix.
Bake for about 40-50 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a wooden skewer.
Remove and rest in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve sliced with butter.

One last travel blog entry

2009-01-31T10:44:00.005Z

Well I'm back home in Brisbane and have been for 2 months now. The weather is gorgeous, I'm looking a job and planning my 30th birthday party next month (eek!). I thought I should write more about my 1 month holiday before I returned to Australia (all the links to photos are in the previous blog entry). So here goes:

Greek Islands:

Mykanos and Santorini were my favourite. Santorini is the place where you take photos that come out like post cards - it's just absolutely stunning. All the white and blue cute little houses, hotels etc and the views were just amazing. Even the animals loved to just sit there and look out at the views. The cruise was really fun and getting to spend a day in Turkey again was fantastic - we did an excursion to Ephisus where all the ancient ruins are. The ampiatheatre there is so huge - U2 even did a concert there. My only disappointment and misconception with the Greek Islands is that the beaches are terrible, gravelly etc. Don't expect long white beaches. The water is beautiful though. On Rhodes island, I swam out to this platform 3 storeys high and jumped off twice - very exhilerating! I spent a day in Athens after the cruise with a hangover from hell courtesy of the toga party on our last night of the cruise. You really only need a day in Athens I think as a tourist. And then it was straight onto an overnight flight to Cairo..

Egypt:

Egypt - what an amazing and dirty disgusting, unhygenic place. There is rubbish everywhere in Cairo. Riverbanks are piled high with litter for as far as the eye can see. It's insanely busy. There are NO traffic rules - cars travel like they're in a car rally race or in a swarm of fish. Lane markings are ignored and cars merge into a chaotic honking mess. And then in the middle of all this chaos, you glance over this buslting city and smack bang - there are the pyramids in the middle of it all. I'd always thought the pyramids were far away from Cairo, but they're not. The pyramids are just HUGE, like mountains. One block went up to my shoulders. I crawled into one of the chambers under one of the pyramids. The sphyx is right next to them too - pretty cool.

So I went on a 15 day tour around Egypt. We headed on a "first class" Egyptian train overnight to Aswan, which I like to refer to as the "the arsehole of the earth". The trip to Aswan, if you fly takes 1 hour. If you take a train, it take 18 hours. Our tour company of course took the train because it's cheaper. The chairs were "comfortable" enough - they reclined at least, like on a plane. But the toilet. Oh the toilet. It wasn't a toilet. It was a metal "contraption", piled high with everyone's shit and toilet paper. It did not flush. Flies buzzed around it. And at 5am, when I woke up on the overnight train, my tummy felt like a kicked in football, and I found myself with simultaneous vomitting and dioreah for a few hours. FUN! That's another thing - you are going to get sick in Egypt at some point no matter how careful you are.

There's not much to do in Aswan - I ate a great pizza, bought some souvenirs, got continually harrassed to buy shit from market sellers and that was about it. I took it pretty easy coz my tummy was not feeliing great / was still recovering. I also did a felucca ride there too and we did a day trip to Abu Simbel - which was pretty awesome.

Next notable stop was Luxor. After the shitty train ride and being well umimpressed with Aswan, Luxor was what you picture and imagine Egypt to be. Our tour group had split up into groups by this point, so there was just 3 of us arriving in Luxor, a day before everyone else. We stayed in the most beautiful and luxurous hotel ever. The room was stunning. The bathroom was huge and had a bidet. You walked down to the pool, and onto a deck that overlooked the beautiful sparkling Nile with lush green hills and the dusty Valley of the Kings in the distance. The sunset behind picturesque palm trees. We sat on the deck drinking beers all afternoon looking over the Nile. I was happy :) Other highlights in Luxor - hot air ballooning (it'd been a lifelong dream to go hot air ballooning) and Valley of the Kings. The views when we went hot air ballooning were just stunning and it wasn't at all scary - it was just like going up and down in a lift in a hotel where you can look outside.

The most other notable stop was Dahab. We stayed at a resort on the Red Sea. The tour had been pretty "hard going" - early starts, overnight train and bus trips, excursions - go go go, so it was just nice to stop and do NOTHING for a few days. There were optional activities to do there, but I skipped most of them and just relaxed. I did go snorkeling, but the funnest thing I did there was go quad biking. We reached up to 80kph on the open road, and well, just went nuts off road. It was like super mario kart, but a hundred times better - I had a ball. We went through valleys, desserty parts, beaches, you name it. Totally worth it.

Our bus ride back to Cairo, was again, another hideous overnight bus ride. My roommate for the trip Jen slept on my lap, and I slumpted on top of her. Bus rides in Egypt are scary, and not because you get escorted by police everywhere, or go through checkpoints with dudes with guns. The scariest part is the way they drive! The buses usually drive in a convoy together with police at the front and back, and the buses drive nose to tail at insane speeds, and no one enforces or wears seatbelts. If one of the buses had to stop suddenly, like if a camel ran on the road - which they do, you'd all be dead. Anyway, we arrived in Cairo at 6.30 in the morning at our hotel and we were DEAD. We were allowed to have 2 hours of sleep, before we went off and did some site seeing around Cairo.

Site seeing when you're dead tired or hungover is not fun. I went to the Egyptian Museum and saw Tutenkhamen's famous mask and was happy about that, but kept dreaming of my bed back at the hotel. We later had a look around the massive markets in Cairo -Khan el-Khalili. These are THE most insane markets I've ever been to. It was this maze of markets, laneways, crammed with people, donkeys, minivans - total chaos selling all sorts of crap. At one point, I didn't know if we were even going to find our way out of there. We eventually did, and found a taxi. By the way - all cars and trucks in Egypt look like they're from the 1960s - Egypt is where cars go to die and continue to somehow live for another 30 years. I'm not sure that I saw one modern car the entire time I was there. Anyway, we made it back to the hotel and the next day I flew back to London for 2 days and was horrified at the terrible cold rainy weather after spending 3 weeks away in perfect summery weather. I did laundry, packed all my winter clothes and I was off to Canada and New York.

Canada:

I flew from London to Toronto. If I thought London was cold, I was in for a rude shock when I got to Canada. Eek! My good friend Karen (she's Canadian), who I met on a contiki tour I did around Europe in 2004 picked me up from the airport. Karen had also come over to London in February in 2008 and stayed with me for 2 weeks and we went over to Paris etc. Anyway, we headed to her hometown of Peterborough, about 1.5 hours drive away. I loved Karen's flat and got to see all the places, clubs, restaurants and people Karen had been telling me about for so long. Had the best sushi in my entire life there too. While I was there, I caught a ridiculously early bus to Toronto and did a day trip to Niagara Falls. What an amazing place. The falls are spectacular - and you get get up SO close to the point of jumping over the barrier. Note, if you decide to jump the falls - it's a $10,000 fee if you survive. And the survival rate is pretty high (more people survive than die).

The falls are so powerful and loud and are this beautiful emerald green colour. The whole area is covered in mist from the falls. When I was there, it was Autumn, and all the trees had turned all sorts of reds and orange - I'd never seen a proper Autumn in this magnitude. And there were squirrels everywhere - but get this - squirrels in Canada are jet black in colour - weird! When I got back to Toronto, I also managed to catch up with one of my school friends, Cynthia who I hadn't seen in a very long time who happened to be living and working there. She showed me around the main streets of Toronto, had a coffee and then I headed back to Peterborough.

New York:

When I was deciding all these trips, the Canada and New York trip was pretty impromtu / spontaneous. I researched some airfares to Toronto and did a comparison from Australia. Brisbane -> Toronto return = $2000 AUD. London -> Toronto return cost 300 GBP = SOLD. When Karen and I were talking about what we should do while I'm there, we came up with the New York idea. We found a really cheap fare for about $150 USD return from Toronto to New York. Bargain! And by this stage of the game, I knew we'd probably be on a budget and accommodation in NY is sooo expensive, so we booked in at a hostel for about $30 a night. When we arrived at the hostel, the guy on reception handed us some metro cards that some other guests had used that was still valid - so we travelled around on the subway the whole time for free!

But New York - what a fabulous place. So much to see and do. Top of the Rock, the Rockafella Centre, Empire State Building, Central Park, Staten Island Ferry, Statue of Liberty, 5th Avenue, Comedy Clubs, Broadway, Soho, the Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, the Stock Exchange, Times Square. Times Square shits on London's Piccadilly Circus. And then of course there's the site of the World Trade Centre. What a moving experience. It's one huge construction site now with baracades all around it. They're building a new building on the site called the Freedom Tower. We went to the visitor's centre. The walls inside were covered with missing signs families had made and photos of all the people who died. I wanted to cry. I wanted to get a good look into the site itself. My best tip is to go into the Hilton and go to their cocktail bar a few floors up, and you can see straight in. And it's also a good opportunity to rest your feet and have a drink - I had a cosmopolitan. We only had one celebrity spotting while we were in New York - Robin Williams. What can I say - I wish we had more time in New York - there's just so much to see and do - I LOVED IT.

By the time we got back to Toronto - it was minus 2 degrees. I've never been anywhere MINUS anything. And then it started to snow. Karen had to scrape the snow off her car. I'd never felt so cold. Then it dawned on me - do planes take off in the snow? And yes, apparently they do. Big snow ploughs clear the snow from the runway and big trucks with long arm hoses blast off all the ice and snow from off the plane (was quite interesting to watch). Another long flight later, I was back in London and had 1 week to pack up my life and my flat in London, and head back to Australia.

London:

When I got back to London, all the tiredness, jetlag and sniffles compounded in this massive headcold and I spent most of my time indoors, taking vitamins, eating lots of garlic to kill the cold (which worked eventually), and packing boxes and boxes of stuff to be shipped home. When I packed my suitcase, it was ready to EXPLODE. It ended up being overweight by 8 kilos and cost me 69 pounds as a result (and the check-in lady was generous with me too considering how overweight my bag was). By this point, I'm pretty much used to and over flying and couldn't give a rat's arse if I ever saw another airport in quite a while. I'd said my goodbyes and my best friends Emma and Liz gave me a beautiful photo of the three of us, the night before - I miss our chats, dinners, drinks and outings around London. We said our goodbyes inside Oxford Circus tube station, and I disappeared down the long escalators headed for the Victoria Line. It was a bit like the movies.

The last time I left my flat while the taxi was waiting outside, was kinda sad. I'd loved living in London, especially in Clapham Junction - such a great area - it had everything I loved and needed - shops, bars, restaurants and trains, all within 5 minutes walking distance. I closed the door to my flat and my life there and left London for the last time. My cab drove past things I'd see for the last time. It was a sad and happy moment. When we lifted off, I didn't even get to see central London from the plane - we immediately disappeared into thick cloud, and I was gone. I was on my way home :)

So what's it like being back? The weather is great, the food is great, sleeping in and sleeping in my own bed is great, driving a car is great. Catching up with everyone has been great. Yes, I'm starting to get a bit bored, but hopefully I'll get a job soon..

My last comment about my whole experience overseas... I was gone for nearly 2 years. It's the best decision I've ever made in my life and I had an insane amount of fun. It's almost like I've been living someone elses life for the last 2 years - it feels like a dream. Flitting off to Europe whenever you want - cheap airfares make it so easy to travel from London. I'd encourage everyone to do it - and do it while you're still young (and before you settle down, buy a house etc - there's plenty of time for that stuff later). Get out and see the world - you'll see some amazing places and meet amazing people. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

Signing off and hope you've all enjoyed reading my travel blog - Amanda :)

Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Canada, New York - PHEW

2008-11-21T05:04:00.002Z

I am back in London and I'm sooo jet lagged, and have a week to pack up my flat. I'm going to write a proper blog entry about each country (later), but for now, if you're desperate, I'm posting links to all the various photo albums and videos I took while I was away.. Enjoy!

Videos: (various) 1: me jumping off a 3 story platform into the ocean in the Greek Islands, 2: Niagara Falls, 3: the whirlpool near Niagara Falls.

Photos albums:
New York
Canada
Egypt - Luxor
Egypt - Aswan
Egypt - Dahab
Egypt - Cairo
Egypt - Hot Air Ballooning
Greek Islands
Turkey

PS: I get back to Australia on 29 November!!

Where on Earth is Amanda?

2008-10-02T12:34:00.003+01:00

Well, it's official. I have given 2 weeks notice at work and resigned and I'm off on a BIG holiday before I head back to Oz at the end of November. If you're wondering where on Earth I am and where I'll be, here's all my flight details :)))

Depart: London Gatwick (North), Sunday 19 October, 4.30pm
Arrive: Athens, Greece, Sunday 19 October, 10.00pm
Flight number: Easyjet 8587
Greek Islands & Turkey Cruise info

Depart: Athens. Greece, Saturday 25 October, 00.50am
Arrive: Cairo, Egypt T2, Saturday 25 October, 01.45am
Flight number: Olympic Airlines 325 (1 hour, 55 minutes)
Egypt Explorer 15 day tour info

Depart: Cairo, Egypt, Saturday 8 November, 5.10pm
Arrive: London Heathrow T1, Saturday 8 November, 8.45pm
Flight number: BMI - MS 9230

Depart: London Gatwick, Tuesday 11 November, 9.50am
Arrive: Toronto, Canada, Tuesday 11 November, 1.00pm
Flight number: Air Transat TS 123

Depart: Toronto, Canada T3, Saturday 15 November, 4.35pm
Arrive: New York – JFK T4, Saturday 15 November, 6.30pm
Flight number: LAN 533 (1 hour, 55 mins)

Depart: New York – JFK T4, Wednesday 19 November, 10.05am
Arrive: Toronto, Canada T3, Wednesday 19 November, 11.45am
Flight number: LAN 532 (1 hour, 40 mins)

Depart: Toronto, Canada, Wednesday 19 November, 7.45pm
Arrive: London Gatwick, Thursday 20 November, 7.55am
Flight number: Air Transat TS 322

Depart: London Heathrow T3, Friday 28 November, 11.30am
Arrive: Hong Kong T1, Saturday 29 November, 7.05am
Flight number: Cathay Pacific 252 (11 hours, 25 mins)

Depart: Hong Kong T1, Saturday 29 November, 12.35pm
Arrive: Brisbane, Australia T1, Saturday 29 November, 11.20pm
Flight number: Cathay Pacific 157 (8 hours, 45 mins)

Vienna

2008-09-30T16:38:00.003+01:00

Vienna City Photos
Vienna Zoo Photos
Friday night: hideously long bus journey to Heathrow straight after work. Saw the new Terminal 5 – lots of shops and decent places to eat. Had sushi. Mysteriously had a business class seat on the plane! Told the guy next to me we must have someone really skinny sitting in between us (business class seat dividers squish the middle seat – German / Austrian guy didn’t get it and decided to give me a speech on business class seats). Plane sat on the tarmac for a good half hour. As we took off, saw a big queue of planes, about 10 waiting to take off as well. Why does British Airways always serve crappy sandwiches? Landed 2 hours later. Kerri (my cousin) was also delayed. Caught a taxi to the hotel. Oohed and ahhed at the pretty buildings on the way. Very tired and very late, we went to bed not long after checking into the hotel.

Saturday: huge insane buffet breakfast. Best bacon I’ve ever eaten – wafer thin. And smoked salmon *drool*. Time to get out, discover Vienna and get lost. And we did. However, we did see a cute street market that looked like an old person’s house had been emptied – lots of old tins, prints, photos, frames, clothes.. After our “diversion” on a few trams, trains etc, we finally ended up back at the Museum Quarter, and wandered around some grand and gorgeous buildings and parks. Eventually we ended up at the Belevedere Palace, walked through the gorgeous grounds and saw the one thing – the entire reason why I came to Vienna. To see Gustav Klimt’s painting, “The Kiss”. I stared at it for so long. To see it up close was so different to seeing it in books. You could see the texture, the real colours, the strokes. Not only was there gold, but also silver used in the painting. I kept coming back after looking at the other paintings to see it over and over.

We then hired some bikes and peddled around Vienna along the parks and riverbank. SO much better and faster than pounding the pavement. Highly recommend it, and loads of bike paths. There’s just sooo many buildings to see. Eventually we went back to the hotel, kicked our feet up, had a couple of drinks and then went upstairs to get ready for the opera. The opera house was stunning. We had champagne to celebrate and our own box on the balcony. Choosing seats is quite hard and also, thank GOD – we had little screens that translated what they were singing into English. Other seats didn’t have that. The opera singers were amazing. No microphones whatsoever – their voices filled the vast, tall area. Afterwards, we went out for a late bite to eat and slept very well that night.

Sunday: the Spanish Riding School. Basically, very well trained white horses, who dance, do ballet and jump around lots to music. Beautiful horses. Enjoyed the second half where they did the ballet, dancing and jumping the most. Afterwards, we went to the Vienna Zoo.. OMG: highlights: mum and dad tiger with 2 baby tiger cubs. 1 leopard and 2 black jaguars all climbing over each other like best buddies and the panda, including the baby panda bear. Great zoo - they even had a delicous restaurant there too! We had dinner and wine there, headed back to Central Vienna on the Underground and found a mexican bar and downed a jug of strawberry marguriatas.

Monday: Kerri had to fly home very early that morning, which left me to my own resources for the day. So after a hearty baconny breakfast, I headed to the Museum Quarter to the Leopold Museum and saw more Klimt paintings and other Austrian art. I then hired a bike and peddled over to Augarten - a huge park. Ended up at Stephenplatz - big Notre Dame like Cathedral, had a bit of retail therapy, found a gorgeous old cafe where you can see the pastry chefs making everything from scratch and had the most insane delicious iced chocolate EVER. Headed back to the hotel, picked up my bags and made way for the airport. Had another amazing seat on the plane - emergency exit row, loads of leg room, an almost empty plane and no one sitting next to me - yay!

So, thanks to my cuz Kerri for a wonderful weekend together - I had such a great time :) xoxo

Switzerland and York photos

2008-09-22T20:33:00.002+01:00

August - what a month, from Turkey at the beginning, to beautiful Switzerland staying with my cuz, to a quaint day trip up to York.. Off to Vienna this weekend and lots more to come!! Enjoy :)

Switzerland photos (album 1)

Switzerland photos (album 2)

York photos

The sun doesn't shine

2008-08-29T22:10:00.004+01:00

The sun doesn't shine in London
The clouds are permanently set
So dull, so weary –
Her people march lazily in her shadow.
No sunrise, no sunset.

The clouds push down,
Unemployment rises, inflation rises.
Nobody smiles, eye contact is minimal, wrinkled faces distort.
A trail of smoke lingers from every hand with its mandatory cigarette,
While rain comes down and dampens our clothes and our spirits.

The hiyas, dyouknowwhadimeans, the youalrights?
The queues, the crisps, the chips, the pints, the stodgy food
No wonder they drink so much, smoke so much, eat so much, complain so much.
Her only hope, is to break through the grey,
And escape by plane to a cleaner, warmer salvation called Europe.

Apparently there were good days
Where the summers here were dry and long.
But the only summers I remember,
Are in the place where I come from.
And I ask myself this question, where do I belong?

By Amanda Home.

Turkey - 30th July to 4th August

2008-08-08T12:08:00.011+01:00

Photo album 1 - Istanbul site seeing
Photo album 2 - Istanbul cats

Turkey -the land of honking cars, no road rules, no seatbelts, ruled by a city of homeless cats. If you like corn, pretzels, icecream, spirographs, shoe shining and kebabs - you have come to the right place - there's one of these stalls or trolleys every ten metres. Drinking tea, smoking waterpipes and playing boardgames is a must. Singing, dancing and clapping along at dinner if you're out at a restaurant is the norm. It's so vibrant, colourful, full of life and fun.

Here's what I got up to:

Wednesday: got up stupid early and hauled arse to Heathrow. The flight was fine. Landed in Istanbul. The longest passport control queue awaited me. Dropped off my bags and headed off to the Grand Bazaar which is one of the biggest indoor maze of markets I've ever seen. Had some tea at this lovely cafe restauarant run by some young boys. Walked down to the water by the Old Town, stopped at an *amazing* pastry shop where I had CHOCOLATE baklava - which was insanely yummy. B then stopped off for a shave at a barber shop, then we went back to the hotel, had drinks on the terrace and headed out and had tea and smoked a water pipe whilst listening to music and watching a Turkish dancing man spin around, and around, and around.. And then headed to bar for some drinks with the lovely Barman "Murat" and had a late dinner.

Thursday: checked out the hotel and checked into a deluxe suite at the Marmara hotel - which was just *stunning*. Thank you B. The views from our room were breathtaking. We had panoramic views of the Bosforus (waters). Went for a swim in the pool and relaxed in the sauna and jacuzzi. We then went for a walk down the Istakal - a big stretch of shops, restaurants and cafes. We then walked to the music district, full of music shops with guitars etc. Bought a cute skirt. That night we ran around looking for the sunset. We found a flower stall that had *purple* flowers, so B bought me a purple rose :) We then ran around found a place to see the sunset which turned out to be outside a tv station and government building - the security guards didn't really like us being there, so we moved along and found somewhere for dinner. Afterwards, we went to this place called the Crab Cafe where a Turkish Metal Band was playing. They took traditional Turkish songs and beefed them up metal style - they were actually an amazing band, and the guitarist played these insane solos. I got up and danced even though I didn't know the music - it was great music and very catchy. More dancing and more drinks, the night paused as the police came through and checked everyone's ID. And then more dancing and drinks :)

Friday: Hangover from hell. B dragged me down to the exclusive lounge floor for deluxe suite guests and we had a buffet breakfast. I felt like a pile of junk. Some food and a swim soon got me moving again. Eventually went to the "stripey" restaurant, where all the decor and furniture was covered in red stripey material and the food was INSANE and fresh and delicious. More walking around side streets and back streets. Got a manicure and a pedicure (total bargain). Back to the hotel, and down to the Fish Market Street to a traditional Turkish restaurant for fresh seafood and traditional live music and singing and clapping. We then found a comfy cafe and had tea and a waterpipe and B taught me how to play draughts..

Saturday: we went to the Palace Topkapi - which was stunning and had great views of the Bosforus. Then onto the Ayasofya a converted mosque from Byzantine times. Amazing inside to see the mix of architectures, religions and styles. Back to the Grand Bazaar and lunch at our favourite cafe. Caught a tram and metro back to the hotel and got ready and went to the Sunset Grill for cocktails (note, you don't actually get to see the sunset at this place). We then came back to the hotel and went up to the Hotel Restaurant and had a absolutely beautiful dinner.

Sunday: yummy toasted Turkish sandwiches for brekky, then off to the old town to the Turkish Bath - lots of bubbles and scrubbing and washing. Then off for a ferry ride around the Bosforus which was lovely, back to the hotel and dinner at the stripey restaurant again for our last night. Then more tea, draughts and waterpipe..

Monday: off to the airport and back to grey, rainy crappy London :(

So that was my trip - probably one of the best holidays I've had.

PS: I'll be coming back to Australia in December - and I have no idea if it's going to be short or long term - everything's up in the air as I'm still waiting to hear about my visa. All I know is I'll back on 1st December.. In the meantime, I've got lots of more trips planned - going to Switzerland at the end of this month and staying with my cousin, and hoping to cram in a couple more weekend trips - to Vienna and Barcelona before time runs out!

Photos - Cotswolds, Bath and Belgium

2008-07-25T09:40:00.000+01:00

Cotswolds & Bath photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=133220&l=87f0e&id=863765297

Belgium photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=133212&l=8dfe7&id=863765297

Will post more soon.

I love Berlin

2008-06-03T22:15:00.003+01:00

I've just gotten back from Berlin and I LOVED IT.

It's green, it's beautiful, it's old, it's new, it's clean, spacious, unpolluted, not overcrowded, there's hardly any cars, there's no traffic, it's cheap, there's outdoor beach bars everywhere and beautiful deep foresty parks, winding "Sprees" (canals)... it goes on and on.

Then there's the history. The Prussian era, French influences, World Wars, the Nazis, the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, rebuilding and rebirth. What an amazing place and the whole world has come together to build a new Berlin and it is truly spectacular. New buildings by world class architects are everywhere. Old buildings are being rebuilt. Most of the buildings in Berlin are less than 10 years old including what look like the oldest buildings. This city has such a beautiful personality and truly blossomed from the ashes it had to emerge from. This city truly puts London to shame!

Here's what I got up to. Firstly - the weather was PERFECT. Blue skies. 30 degrees. Stunning. On my first day, we did a bus tour, and then checked into the hotel. Then I walked into the city Centre into to the Hackescher market area with loads of outdoor bars, beach bars, shops, covered courtyards. More random wanderings and ended up on Museum Island. Afterwards, had a beer in an outside bar outlooking the river and museums. Just gorg. And its the law that beer cannot be altered with preservatives or additives in the beer making process - so strangely I really like German beer. Afterwards, back to our hotel, which was in the Turkish Quarter of Gesundbrunnen (really yummy kebabs there - nice and light, not heavy and greasy).

Saturday, I did a walking tour from 10.30am to almost 6pm. Our tour guide Tom was like a walking history book. I felt like I was on the best school excursion ever! All those boring modern history lessons in highschool suddenly came to life through our very animated guide - I was enthralled. We started at the Ostbahnhoff train station which is MASSIVE. The architecture was amazing and the majority of it is actually underground, so the grand building you see from the outside, is only a proportion of the real actual size. Then onto the Reichstag and another history lesson (or a few history lessons). Then onto the Brandenburg gate. And onto many many more buildings.. more stories, more history, Checkpoint Charlie - its just endless. Stood above the bunker where Hitler shot himself. We saw so much. At the end of the walking tour, we went to the stop of the Reichstag building to the glass dome and watched the sunset. Afterwards, we found a guy with a bike and sat in the back while he peddled us into the Tiergarten to an outdoor beer garden in the middle of this massive mysterious thick forested park. It was dusk, and I felt like I was stuck in some sort of dream, racing through this park. We also passed the victory column (with the big angel on top) and it was closed off to traffic because they were filming a movie there (loads of movies are filmed in Berlin). Anyway, we some beers and headed back to the hotel. Interestingly in the day time in this massive park, there's nude sunbathing, of course segregated into straight naked sunbathing, and gay naked sunbaking.

On our last day we went to the Topography of Terror - an outdoor photo exhibition. Then onto the Jewish Museum with a detour into a market and then onto the East Side Gallery - a part of the original Berlin Wall, still standing and preserved with amazing art and graffiti. I never realised there were 2 parts to the wall - the east and the west with a sandy no mans land in the middle.

Anyway, I have 2 photo albums of photos -make sure you check them both out and everyone - you HAVE to go to Berlin - amazing beautiful city - keen to go back in a flash...

1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=122406&l=805ae&id=863765297

2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=122401&l=31255&id=863765297

Cardiff

2008-05-04T21:18:00.003+01:00

Another quick and lazy blog entry....

Cardiff day trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=108714&id=863765297

Food floor party and the French Bar in Battersea:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=110087&id=863765297

Lazy blog entry - Easter trip to Scotland, and my new house

2008-04-07T22:00:00.003+01:00

Hi everyone,

Well this is going to be quick blog entry.

For easter, I went up to Scotland - visited Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Highlands - which were just gorgeous. And it was insanely cold! And I got snowed on for the first time.

My other news is that I also moved house! I'm now living at Clapham Junction and absolutely LOVE it. The area is great - I'm a couple of minutes walk away from the train for work and still close to London (10 minutes on the train). And my flat is just lovely! Very roomy, and it has a cute little garden. And the area is great - everything is so close and there's tonnes of shops, bars, restaurants.. Very very happy.

Anyway, here's the photos for Edinburgh: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=103297&l=ed344&id=863765297

And here's the photos of my new flat: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106303&l=fe00b&id=863765297

Enjoy!

February Fun - birthdays, Paris, Disneyland, rollerdisco and more

2008-03-02T21:58:00.005Z

Photos - Paris etc

Photos - rollerdisco and more

What a crazy month - here's what's been happening!

12 Feb: met my friend Karen from Canada at Heathrow for her 2 week stay with me.

13 Feb: the grand tour of Brixton. I’d caught an evil cold – it was starting to set in. Sent Karen off to Oxford Street for some shopping and exploring, whilst I rested. That evening we went to the crazy bear cocktail bar for drinks. I had fruity non-alcoholic cocktails.

14 Feb: my birthday! Still sick. Got up at 4.45am – was so early I didn’t even realize it was my birthday. Karen and I caught the Eurostar to Paris. It was FREEZING. Went to Montmatre, Musee D’orsay, a Korean bbq restaurant for my birthday dinner, and to the Eiffel tower that night. It was so cold, you couldn’t even see the top of the tower as it was covered in fog. Ate delicious nutella crepes.

15 Feb: still sick. Haul ass on the interesting train system out to Disneyland. Went on loads of rollercoasters which are all indoors and in the dark. Lots of fun, but very cold and very sick.

16 Feb: get the train out to Versailles. Walk around the Palace gardens (which are massive), then inside King Henry 8th’s apartments, which are insanely luxurious. Then venture into the food markets and buy fresh ingredients to make baguettes. See an amazing cake shop. French food is amazing. That evening we came back to London.

19 Feb: went to the Tutankhamen exhibition at the O2 stadium.

21 Feb: rollerskating at the rollerdisco! Got all dressed up silly. Only fell over the once on my bum. Amazed I remembered how to skate (last time I skated was in primary school). My friend Liz fell over and broke her wrist :(

23 Feb: Karen’s birthday! We Will Rock You – the musical. What a great show. The story is great – set in the future when all musical instruments are banned and its all commercialized crap, and rock and roll has been “erased” from history and of course we have our heroes / rebels or bohemians who try to get it back, sung along to with Queen songs. Bohemian Rhapsody was awesome at the end – it was amazing and very emotional. Went out for dinner afterwards to a Korean and Japanese restaurant in Chinatown – very yum.

24 Feb: I’m finally better after my horrid horrid cold. I attribute getting better to drinking this “interesting” fresh carrot and ginger juice at work every day this week, multivitamins, andrographis capsules and yakult. Hate being sick. Karen is away doing a weekend trip. My plans for the weekend: SLEEP!

25 Feb: Karen leaves :( Hope you come back soon Karen – will miss you.. and London is waiting for you..

Things to come: Edinburgh for easter long weekend (4 days), April - trip to Cardiff, May - Long weekend away in Cornwall (by the beach - yay!). Hope everyone at home is well.. Amanda :)

Australia Day and other random stories

2008-01-30T22:20:00.000Z

Photos are of my Australia Day in London are here.

How do you spend Australia Day in another country? For me, I cooked up a huuuuge roast lamb, invited my Aussie and New Zealander friends around (Liz and Emma), drank Aussie beer and finished with pavlova. We also listened to the Triple J hottest 100 countdown over the internet.

We then engaged in some silliness with the cardboard cutout of George (Clooney) who I found sitting outside our house the other week, conveniently already cut out where his tongue is (hmmm). And we also had champas.

....And then cocktails at the pub around the corner where more Aussies were to be found. Good thing the pub is only 10 or 20 metres away - makes for a quick trip home! Did not prevent me from having a pounding headache the next day though. Must drink more water. Oh well.

Other random stories - public transportation (and stories about crazy people).

I have 2 stories to share. The first is of catching the tube home one afternoon on a weekend. The tube wasn't packed (for a change). We pull into a station. I can hear loud music coming from somewhere - which is odd - because you never hear loud music down in the tube. There's no mobile or radio reception, and people generally listen to their the ipods or read newspapers. Communication or interaction is not encouraged, unless you're with a friend or shamelessly drunk.

Anyway, the source of the loud music happens to be this very straight looking 50 year old man with a boombox over his shoulder pelting out the tune of "I'm every woman". It was really funny, but again, eye contact is not encouraged. He stumbled off the tube a couple of stations later, boombox and can of beer in hand. Personally I think it's very hobo to drink booze on public transport - but everyone seems to do it here - it's the norm.

My second story occurs at an overland (above ground) train station on the way to work one morning. An old man starts talking to me (whilst I'm thinking "here we go" and rolling my eyes internally). Turns out he wanted to make sure he was getting the right train for his station - which happened to be where I was getting off/going anyway. He also wanted to make sure he didn't fall asleep as well. So I made sure he got the right train with me and we sat on the train together. He'd just bought some fresh fruit as well, and gave me some to eat (I was starving), and made sure he got off the right station with me (he did nodd off a couple of times). So I guess not everyone is crazy here. Although, they are entertaining.. :)

Holidays at home and ahead

2008-01-19T21:15:00.000Z

Brisbane photos are here.

Well, I went home for 2 weeks over Christmas / New Year. I arrived on Christmas Day at 7pm after an incredibly long flight with very little sleep. I got to fly on one of those new A300 airbuses (the double decker one). My Mum, sister and her boyfriend met me at the airport. Ash broke away from the barrier and gave me a huge hug. I was back in Brisbane. It wasn’t as hot as I thought it would be – it had been raining. And the rain didn’t stop the entire time I was there, except for may be 2 days. Apparently I brought the weather with me.

Highlights

I got to catch up with and see my family and friends.
I got to see my Dad’s new house. It’s huge. There’s a pool and a big outdoor barbecue area.
I went to all my favourite restaurants, and ate all the food I had been missing so badly.
Australian bacon is the best – English bacon just doesn’t compare. Same goes for seafood.
It was nice wearing summer clothes for a change, leaving the cold English weather and 500 layers of clothing behind.
I stayed in a beautiful hotel in the city at the beginning – the Stamford Plaza Hotel – thanks to Bahadir, it was lovely.
I went to the beach / Noosa twice.
I had a big barbeque at my Dad’s house and invited heaps of people over.
I guess I was kind of spoilt while I was home.

Lowlights

It rained almost the entire time – I came back and the weather in London was better than Brisbane (which is seriously wrong). So I didn’t end up staying at the coast or doing any of the day trips such as Byron.
I had to find a new home for my cat Kiddy, which was stressful / challenging, but turned out well in the end, I think. He’s now living down the Gold Coast.
Did I mention it rained, constantly?

All these things aside, it was interesting going home to Brisbane. Brisbane itself hadn’t changed much, and there still wasn’t a great deal to actually “do” there. There were little changes, like new shops etc. But living in Australia, you very much embrace the outdoors, and nearly everything revolves around and is dependant on this. When you are forced indoors (due to weather), there really isn’t a lot to do (apart from watching boring daytime tv or going shopping), and you are forced to make your own fun - if you’re motivated to do so.

I also visited my old work, which was very weird. Everyone had moved desks, there were some new faces - it was good seeing my old work buddies though. And it was funny seeing my face plastered over all the screensavers there. I got to have my chai latte from the cafeteria which I *adored*. Hot drinks over here in the UK are never hot enough, or your cold drinks are never cold – they just can’t seem to get it quite right.

Something random – a lot of people commented on the watch I was wearing. It was of course purple, and I bought it new off ebay a few months ago. But if you want your own – you can buy it from this site: http://www.blingwatches.co.uk/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=Swiss+Balance+Ladies+Mosaic+Watch

Anyway, I’m back in London now and looking forward to the year ahead. I’ve got a few more trips if all goes to plan – hopefully Edinburgh, Switzerland, Devon, Cornwall and Paris next month for my birthday with my friend Karen who's coming out to stay with me for a couple of weeks from Canada! We're also going to Eurodisney while we're there. I’ve also decided to apply another visa so I can keep working - I feel as though I've barely scratched the surface with all the travelling I want to do over here. I’ve also decided that when my lease is up at the end of April, I'd like to move out of (dodgy) Brixton and over to Clapham Junction. It’s a great area – lots of cute shops, restaurants, bars – it’s very lively and also right near a major train station – so it would make getting to work a hell of a lot easier and it's still only 10-15 minutes outside of Central London itself. I’m really looking forward to moving and discovering a new area.

So that's my holiday at home and my plans for this year..

My cat Kiddy has found someone to look after him

2007-12-14T06:42:00.000Z

Many of you would have seen that I was looking for someone to look after my cat Kiddy whilst I'm away. I would like to thank my friend Dean for putting the word out and putting me in contact with the lovely Maureen. Kiddy is now living it up down the Gold Coast with Maureen and her cat Phoenix who is like Kiddy's twin (short black fur, same age, size). Apparently Kiddy is settling in great. A big thank you to Maureen and all the other people to contacted me - it's nice to know there's people out there willing to help.

Xmas Parties, Beatles, Oxford, Cotswolds...

2007-12-07T20:56:00.000Z

Work xmas party – Saturday 1 December 2007

Photos: www.amanda.com.au/uk/workxmasparty/

What a great night. Our Christmas party was held at Tynley Hall in the countryside on a huge estate. It was black tie – and everyone dressed up. We all had our own rooms. At the beginning of the night, professional photographers took our photos. Then we had a big sit down dinner, and in between courses, there was these fantastic opera singers (that gave me goosebumps). Then dancing, more drinks etc. And at the end of the night, it turns out the photos that were taken were transposed onto a magazine cover – one for us each of us to keep - fun night!

By the way – my dress cost £15 – so many bargains to be had in Brixton, and I borrowed a pair of Steph’s shoes – hardly spent any money at al. Anyway, have several more Christmas drinks, lunches and dinners to go now – hmm and eek – I guess it’ll have to make up for the fact that I’m spending most of Christmas Day on a plane. Not long til I’m home now – yaaaay!

Beatles Walk – Sunday 25 November 2007

Photos: www.amanda.com.au/uk/beatles/

I’ve been doing a few walks around London through www.londonwalks.com/ – they’re only £6 each and a guide takes you around London and points out various landmarks, past and present. The history is fascinating. And it’s good exercise. Anyway, I did a Beatles walk. The guide who does the tour owns his own Beatles café near Abbey Road, has written his own book about the Beatles and has his own DVD. AND, he’s the world champion Beatles quiz master (or something). Basically, this guy knows A LOT about the Beatles.

We visited several historically important Beatle related places around London. Several recording studios, Saville Row – the building where they last performed together on the rooftop (which is sadly sitting there empty and closed up). Various clubs. And finally the infamous Abbey Road. Abbey Road is actually quite busy – so it’s hard to get a photo of you on it, without annoying motorists. There’s actually a live webcam of Abbey Road from the Abbey Road recording studio (right next to the crossing): www.abbeyroad.co.uk/virtual_visit/webcam/ - you’ll see what I mean about traffic.

Oxford and the Cotswolds – Saturday 24 November 2007

Photos: www.amanda.com.au/uk/oxfordcotswolds/

I did a day trip out to the Cotswolds and Oxford with Tracks Travel (very cheap again – only £17). The Cotswolds is gorgeous – we went to this cute village called Bourton on the Water. It has water flowing through the middle of the village. Lots of cute shops. They even had a model village of the village (which also its own model of the model etc). It was very cold! But bearable – however, I did have to buy a second pair of socks to wear – my feet were freezing. We warmed up in a café and had some yummy scones and tea.

Next we were off to Oxford. There is no actual Oxford university. Just lots and lots of colleges that fall under the umbrella name of Oxford university. We did the hop on / hop off bus tour – but if anyone ever visits there – I’d just recommend having a walk around and visit one of the colleges eg – Christ Church is close and huge. Bought a great scarf there (purple of course). One thing about doing site seeing in winter – is that there’s far less tourists – which is great. I’m handling the cold “ok”, so long as it isn’t windy or raining, its tolerable, especially if you’ve got the right clothes. I love my winter coat (and I’m sure it loves me too).

Natural history museum - Sunday 18 November 2007

Photos: www.amanda.com.au/uk/naturalhistorymuseum/

Loads of the museums here are free to visit. Decided to go check out the Natural History Museum one weekend. Outside, there was a real Christmas tree, an icerink, and Christmas markets. Inside there were loads of different exhibitions. I liked the dinosaur exhibition the best. You could spend days in these museums – good thing they’re free...

3 days in Paris

2007-11-02T23:53:00.000Z

Firstly, photos are here: www.amanda.com.au/uk/paris

Saturday 27 October 2007: Awake at 4.45am. Does this time actually exist? It’s pitch black. Drunk people stumble around outside. I could get the bus. I don’t want to walk through the dodgy park and sit waiting at the bus stop in the cold. Screw it – I order a taxi. Arrive at Waterloo Station. I have a coffee (I hate coffee) – but it wakes me up.

Our tour group meets and we get on the Eurostar train. I meet two other Aussies. This is normal – I think half the Australian population is over here. We zoom over to Paris. Turns out Paris is COLDER than London – how is this possible? Very glad I brought my new winter coat with me – which I’m sure was made from a sleeping bag – it actually has feathers inside it.

We get to the hotel – the Ibis hotel. Our rooms aren’t ready. Everybody is dead tired. We sit waiting forever in the foyer. There’s not enough chairs. I curl up on the floor next to the radiator like a cat, half slumped on my backpack and have a powernap. Later I venture outside to find food and manage to order a baguette from a local café. Wishing I knew more French. Finally, we’re allowed into our rooms (twin share). Beds are comfy. Decent bathroom. Yay. It’s now time to (re)discover Paris!

We catch the Metro – which is like the tube / underground, but the stations are a bit more spacious and bright. It smells like piss. Homeless people sleep in the Metro and because you have to pay to go to the toilet, a lot of public places reek of urine – not pleasant. The smoking ban also isn’t in place. A lot of places such as restaurants and bars also reek. Apart from these 2 things – Paris is the most gorgeous city – just stunning.

We head up to Sacré-Coeur (Sacred Heart) which is a big church on top of a hill. The view would’ve been stunning if it weren’t so cloudy. There’s loads of people, street performers etc. A man plays ball with his dog. Dogs are an accessory – people take them everywhere. We head over to the art markets at Montmartre where artists such as Salvador Dalí, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh apparently used to hang out and syphilis was the popular disease or “in thing” of the day.

There are many little streets and alleyways, shops, cafes, restaurants and markets, all oozing with activity, creativity, passion, colour and life. There were a crazy amount of artists offering to do portraits. I didn’t really want a proper portrait – so I got this funky / arty piece done of me which turned out great. I imagine if I had my own funky alternative cartoon – this is what I’d look like / what my character would be. Was very happy with the final result.

We then passed down through some local streets – again all the shops and cafes just made me want to stop there for hours and take it all in. I also spied this gorgeous purple bag in one of the shop windows, but because we were on the move – I couldn’t stop (annoying). We also stopped at the café where Amelie was filmed. And at the bottom of the hill was the Moulin Rouge. Onto the metro again, and we headed to the the Arc de Triumph to drool at the shops and then onto the Eiffel Tower.

I had my first crepe. It had a chocolatey nutella sauce. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I now LOVE crepes. We then went on a river cruise, which was nice, but I was completely knackered – and it was getting late. We headed back to the hotel. Some people went out for a late dinner – the crepe seemed to have sustained me. So I went back to my hotel room and crashed.

Sunday – breakfast in the hotel. Croissants galore. Yum. First we headed to the Louvre. It’s so massive. So many floors and wings – you could get lost in there for days. Took loads of photos. Saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Angel Statue thing, lots of Egyptian stuff (is there anything actually left in Egypt? It seems to be in all museums over here!). Afterwards, me and my enemy Coffee met again. Made another attempt to speak French which of course they reply to you in French and you stand there going ummmm and just end up speaking in English anyway. I then wandered around the shops outside the Louvre and then had lunch.

We then headed to the island of Le Cite where Paris was founded. I managed to miss the Notre Dame on my last trip, so made sure I took lots of photos of it. It’s huge, beautiful and very mysterious. Very dark inside and the ceilings are insanely high with colourful and intricate stained glass windows. I’m not religious at all, but I love sitting in cathedrals, taking in the beauty of the décor, architecture and artwork. Again, we were off to the Eiffel Tower, and seeing as the top floor was for some reason closed, I saw this as a good excuse to eat more crepes and aimlessly wander the riverside and streets of Paris until we all met up again later to go back to the hotel.

Monday: free time. Me and fellow Aussie Najah headed off to the La Fayette Galleries. It was raining, so shopping seemed like a good indoor activity. What an exquisite shopping centre. They had a giant Christmas Tree on display in the centre. The ceiling and surrounding balconies were jaw droppingly stunning. Again, you could spend hours walking around these places in awe.

Next we headed back to Montmartre to the Amelie café. And then in search of the mysterious and fabulous purple bag I had seen on our first day. A lot of the shops were closed and we couldn’t quite remember which direction we’d come from. We headed down a street with lots of shops – and there it was. I ran excitedly across the road and there was the purple bag sitting in the shop window. And it was open. And there was a 25% off sale. It was destiny. I bought the bag. I then wandered into another shop with an even more beautiful (and more expensive) purple leather bag, but couldn’t justify buying 2 bags, let alone 2 purple bags in one day. Oh well, I’ll just have to go back there again some time ;)

Anyway, after moseying through these cute streets and its shops, it was time to head back to the hotel, collect our bags and head to the Eurostar. We got back to London quite early – 6pm – always nice getting home early after a trip away, especially when you’ve got work the next day. I got a packed bus home from Waterloo and stood the entire way - welcome back to crazy London. I dragged my backpack back to our house – I also had a bit of a limp – I’d pulled or strained a leg muscle somewhere along the way in Paris. It was really good to get away – the worries of everyday life seem to wash away when you're on holidays. The relaxed Paris pace was just what I needed.

Next trips: Aberdeen (for work). Oxford and the Cotswolds. Bruges (Belgium). Then HOME to Brisbane for 3 weeks at Christmas!! See you all soon - Amanda :)

Living in the ghetto - an update from London

2007-10-15T21:08:00.000+01:00

I open this week's blog entry with the theme music from the tv show the Bill playing in my head. I hate webpages that open with music, however if you want to play along with me - click here to listen to the Bill theme. Saturday morning, I stumbled home after a night out where I drank far too much wine. Most of Saturday morning was spent catching up on sleep, passed out on my bed in my bathrobe, packet of pain killers next to my bed and an icepack on my head. As I'm trying to sleep I hear "ksssht" noise of a police radio outside. This is quite normal where I live. Sirens are always going off. Even the sound of gunfire is beginning to not phase me (but still scares me a little). So in my hungover trying to sleep state, I ignore the police and their radios outside. Steph comes upstairs to my room and says "Manda, there's a man in our garden". We both look out my bedroom window. Sure enough there is a man huddled in the corner of our garden. Me and Steph look at him from our window. He looks at us. Steph and I look at each other. He says "ssssh, I'm hiding". He looks about 16 or 18 years old. The cogs in my head slowly start to turn. My brain finally starts to function, and my brain says to me, "perhaps this is why there are police outside - they might be looking for this man". Steph tells him to get out of our garden. Brain and body decide to function together now. And I run outside to discover, not just the one policeman on patrol, but 3 police cars and a police van and cops everywhere. They look like they're about to give up, when all of a sudden, a crazy woman, looking like hell, dressed in a bathrobe (being ME), runs over to the police cars and says, "there's a strange man in our garden!". The police spring into action and say can we go through your house to get into your garden? I say yes, and before I know it, there's 6 or so police storming through our house. They get into our yard, jump our fence and capture our fugitive on the run. Steph and I watch them put him in the police van. One of the cops gives me a "well done" nod as all the police walk back to their cars. Well done me - the caped or robed crimefighter.

Later that day I managed to make myself human and headed into London for some essential winter clothes: I now have leather knee high boots, 2 winter coats (one for work, one for more outdoorsy survival stuff). All I need now is some gloves, but they can wait a bit. Saturday night, I managed to haul myself to Putney to meet up with some girls. Although I was pretty useless. Had 2 drinks, got the bus home, and fells asleep literally as soon as my head hit the pillow and slept solidly for 10 hours straight.

Work is sending me up to Aberdeen next month for 3 days. I doubt there'll be much "site" seeing, as I'll be working the entire time, and it's in the middle of the week - but it's always good to get away and stay in a nice hotel! I'd been hoping to get up to Scotland before the end of the year (on a proper weekend away), but time is running out - it might be something I'll have to do early next year.

I've also booked a day trip to Bruges (in Brussells), to the Christmas markets. Apparently this is what proper Christmas is supposed to be like. Ice skating (although I'm really crap / scared of ice skating), snow, markets with all Christmassy stalls, singing, carols etc. It's meant to be gorgeous.

I also went to Greenwich the other weekend for a picnic with my friends Emma and Liz. We caught the DLR which is an above ground train - so you actually get to SEE stuff on the way (this is a novelty when you get the tube all the time). We all stood on that Greenwich Mean Time line. There's an observatory and stuff and all the history behind it. Lots of clocks and old timey stuff. It's really quite pretty up there. We even saw an old movie being filmed so there were all these actors walking around in period costumes (who most of which were on their mobile phones), horse drawn carriages etc. Here's all the Greenwich photos: www.amanda.com.au/uk/greenwich

I've just RSVPed for our work Christmas Party as well. It's being held in Hampshire Countryside and looks absolutely gorgeous. It's a black tie dinner dance, and every stays overnight (and it's free!). Woohoo.

So I'll leave this week's blog entry there. The mornings are getting darker. The days are getting shorter. People tell me the sun eventually goes down at 3pm at it's worst.

But alas, I'll be back in the Aussie sunshine for 3 beautiful weeks before I know it...

Weekend in Wales

2007-09-24T21:43:00.000+01:00

22-23 September 2007

What a lovely weekend.

Here’s all the photos: www.amanda.com.au/uk/wales/

First stop: Chester – near the England / Wales border. Very cute town. Most of the streets were shut off – so there were just people walking everywhere. There was some kite festival going on as well. Was quickly coming to the realisation that our driver/tour guide was actually the man who gives the tour of the Box Factory in the Simpsons.

Anyways, next stop – Conwy – just gorgeous. Beautiful green hills, big castle, also home to the Britain’s smallest house. We climbed the city walls and got some great views.

Next stop was the resort / seaside town of Llandudno. Gorgeous old buildings lined the beach. The water was blue and flat, sun was shining, no wind – perfect. And we got to stay in a proper hotel! Ie - not a crummy hostel, with 12 people crammed into a loft with bunk beds and 2 showers that dribble cold water – our room overlooked the bay, was twinshare, and we had our own bathroom! Strangely – it had an electric toilet with in built shredder which was very loud.

We were then left to our own devices for the evening and me and my roomie / fellow Aussie Tory headed off that evening and walked along the beach while the sun was still up. We had a small wander around the town – nothing much was open on a Saturday night – but we found a nice pub and had dinner there. Mid dinner, a group of 20 rowdy, drunk Welsh women on a hen’s night *burst* into the pub, yelling, squealing and yahooing. Was cringing slightly on the inside – the bride was .. old. Then all of a sudden, a “fireman” entered the pub.

Now having worked with firemen / at emergency services before, I can assure you that the sexy fireman is actually a myth. They’re generally overweight, old, or both. So stripper fireman provided well, everyone in the pub with a bit of entertainment / eye candy / beefcake. Was funny to say the least. Later me and Tory went for a walk down the pier and stopped and played air hockey on the way back (I love air hockey!). We called it a night soon after.

Next morning – we had a cooked breakfast in the hotel and we set off in the minibus to the nearby peninsula of Great Orme next to Llandudno (where we stayed). I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden the skies opened up and it felt like a cyclone outside standing up on this peninsula. I thought my face was going to fall off. It was SO cold and windy, that you could lean forward like you were going to fall over and the wind would keep you propped up. And when you walked, the wind pushed you along like a leaf in the wind. After we left, we saw a lost sheep that had been “pulled over” by police who’d cornered him on a roundabout. Cute.

We then drove over to the Island of Anglesey, and stopped at the longest town name place: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch which means: St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool of St Tysillio's church, by the red cave. Seriously the welsh language looks like someone has just mashed randomly into a keyboard – and to pronounce it is completely different again. We then headed to Caernarfon – where there was another castle. It had a swing bridge and I kind of got stuck on the other side when a boat came through. Luckily the bridge soon swung back.

We then headed to Snowdonia National Park. Which was “nice” but the scenery was very similar to the Lake District. For some reason I was expecting something more visually dramatic or more mountainous – but it was still pretty and we went on a steam train which was ok, but very squished and hot inside because none of us could figure out how to open the windows.

After that we had a long drive back to London via Cambridge (grrr) – so didn’t get home until after 10pm. Always good to get out of London I say. Next trip: PARIS (in October)! Oh and tomorrow night I’m going to see the only full live recording of Queen when they played in Montreal in 1981 on the big screen and in surround sound in Leicester Square – should be fantastic and the closest I’m ever gunna get to seeing Queen / Freddy Mercury live. AND I’m coming home for a couple of weeks at Xmas – from 25 Dec - 10 Jan. Flights are now all booked – YAAAY!!

Thames River Festival, 1000 gorillas, St Paul's Cathedral, and I'm coming home at Xmas for 2 weeks!

2007-09-16T15:25:00.001+01:00

Photos: www.amanda.com.au/uk/thames

Transe Express perform Maudits Sonnants at the Thames River Festival – Saturday 15 September 2007

A giant moving mechanical chandelier contraption is suspended from a crane. The dropback is the London Eye and Big Ben. Platforms with fire torches surround. The musicians come out in silver costumes ringing bells, jumping around and yelling French from the fiery platforms. Eventually they make their way to the chandelier contraption and all of a sudden it lights up, expands and raises into the sky. The musicians dangle from it like christmas tree decorations and they play music mid air with trapeze artists moving and swinging around above them. The music is sweet and loud, like music box with tinkling bells, but amplified and with drums. If you are familiar with Sigur Ros – they sounded similar to some of their songs that sound like a music box or songs with bells in them. The chandelier expanded and contracted, changed colours, moved up and down and climaxed with a reddish pink smokey explosion below. Truly amazing.

Earlier that day I also went to St Paul’s Cathedral, and climbed the 1 million stairs all the way to the top – it’s worth it and the view is fantastic – and the weather was surprisingly nice – blue skies and even the “Sun” decided to make a rare appearance. I love St Paul’s – it’s so beautiful inside - I could just sit there for hours looking at the ceilings. In the gift shop afterwards, I was looking at books and postcards, and this old man had a name badge on for some reason. His name was Douglas Home. I’m not sure if he was deaf or just didn’t understand my accent, but we established that we both had the surname eventually. Strangely, if your surname is Home over here, you’re actually supposed to pronounce it “Hume” – weird. People have hard a hard enough time spelling Home (they like to add L or S), I think it’d even be a bigger pain to tell people how to pronounce it, so I think I’ll just stick to spelling it and pronouncing it HOME. Apparently there’s some society for people with the surname Home with about 4000 people in it (who knew there were so many?). His wife said we probably have the same ancestors in Scotland. He also said, gee you’ve come a long way visit here. Made me sound like an alien who’d travelled many light years from a far away planet to get here. Hmm.

Speaking of HOME, I’m coming home for Christmas for 2 weeks (hoorah!). It’ll be great to see family and friends, my cat!!, go to a real beach, go to my favourite restaurants, drive a car, see my Dad’s new house, dive in his new pool etc etc etc. It'll be nice to get a few things out of my system and also temporarily escape the middle of British winter and.. defrost. Meanwhile, I’ve got a few things to keep me going/busy – next weekend – Wales. October – Paris, November – Edinborough (these are all weekend trips), and 4 concerts to go to before the year is over (yes, poor me, life is tough). It’s so incredibly cheap to travel here – I can’t wait to plan more weekends away for next year when I get back! And all my favourite bands seem to play here all the time – whereas normally you have to wait ages for them to come to Brisbane – IF they come to Brisbane.

I also wanted to attend / watch the Annual Running of the Gorillas charity fun run, but alas, I got the date wrong and I’ll be in Wales next weekend when it happens. But I encourage you all to at least watch the video via the link above (it’s very funny) or if you’re feeling inspired, donate. More people run in this race dressed in gorilla suits than there actually are real gorillas in the wild :( And someone needs to organise a race like this is Brisbane or Australia. Anyways, that’s all for now. I’ve also included some photos extra random photos from here and there such as when I went to the Dali exhibition the other weekend. Enjoy! Amanda :)

PS: here's a link to the photos again: www.amanda.com.au/uk/thames

Lakes District and Liverpool long weekend away

2007-08-28T20:33:00.000+01:00

Photos:

http://www.amanda.com.au/uk/lakes/

Friday night - as the English put it - "a nightmare".

Due to depart London 6.30 Friday evening. Left work with backpack on wheels. Carrying bag up tube stairs not fun. Booking agency sent me to wrong side of London for departure point. Nearly missed bus. Other tour bus rang through to let them know I was coming. Tubed it from Great Portland Street to Shepherds Bush on the lookout for bus near Walkabout pub. Arrive Shepherds Bush. No idea where Walkabout pub is. Asked newspaper boy - no idea. Asked Policeman - sends me in wrong direction. Start to freak out. Am now 45 minutes late for the bus. Phone tour company. Phone low on credit. Continue freak out. Get through and point me in right direction and I see purple bus. Relief. Bus full of 50 impatient/annoyed people await me. We finally depart. Sleepily watch Hot Fuzz on DVD on the bus. Due to late departure, we arrive in Lakes District at 1am and don't get to bed (which for me was the top of a bunk with a room of 9 other people) until 2am. Also started reading a book - Ex and the City - must read for any girl - v funny and author had same birthday as me and understands joys and pain of having your birthday on Valentine's day.

Saturday and Sunday - the Lakes District Walked around the hills.

Lots of Lakes - imagine they would be sparkly and blue if sun was out. Cute little towns (cute shops, and no Maccas, KFCs or Starbucks in sight!). Very green. Sheep everywhere (in various colours and breeds) - they keep their tales here. Stone wall fences everywhere. Old timey slate houses and buildings everywhere. Chilly cloudy weather (but no rain). Ate the best home made gingerbread ever. Caught ferries/boats around Lake Windemere. Went horseriding overlooking lakes - very scenic. Finished book.

Monday - Liverpool.

Liverpool: Major port city - trade and industry driven. Big American influence. Home of the Liverpool soccer team and giant stadium. Hometown of the Beatles. Where maiden Titanic voyage set off from. Where slave trade began (and was also first abolished). First Chinatown in Great Britain. Largest (Anglican) Cathedral in Great Britain - designed by same man who designed red phoneboxes (no, the church does not look like a giant red phonebox). Also home to ugliest giant pointy metal Catholic cathedral ever. Giant Beatles Festival going on - Beatles lookalikes and coverbands everywhere. Went to Cavern Club where the Beatles played before they hit the big time and where loads of other famous bands have played. All wheely bins in Liverpool are bright purple. Stopped at Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields. Saw house where John Lennon grew up. Long bus journey home to London. Watch 28 Weeks Later on DVD - this movie could solve London's population crowding problem. Home by 9pm, in bed at 10. Have caught a cold.

Other news.

Also saw Spoon, Trail of Dead and Tool (bands) over the last couple of weeks. Phew. Enjoy photos! Manda

http://www.amanda.com.au/uk/lakes/

PS: big big thanks to my old boss Karen who sent me over 2 tins of Aktavite, promite, tim tams, sweet chili and sour cream chips and dvd..

Weather comparison

2007-08-07T16:59:00.001+01:00

I have the weather as part of my custom google homepage and every now and then I compare. So, if I hear anyone from home complaining about the weather or how cold it is - let me just put things in comparison / into perspective (of course I'm allowed to complain as much as I want ;) You're getting better and warmer weather than here and its supposed to be summer for me! I think I'm going to die when British winter hits.

Summer has definately arrived (for like, a day). Visits to Westminster Abbey, Regents Park and London Zoo

2007-08-05T21:11:00.001+01:00

Firstly - photos: are here.

Friday 3rd August

Didn’t leave work til 6pm – definitely not enough hours in the day. Dragged my feet home, cooked dinner, had a glass of red and my head hit the pillow at 9pm. Was very tired! Had met up with an old friend from uni the night before which may have contributed to my tiredness as well. I’ve tracked down a couple of people on Facebook, and am meeting up with another friend from high school next week, both of which have been over here in London for a few years now. Highly recommend signing up to facebook!!

Saturday 4th August

Woke up at 7am (grrr). Did all my normal Saturday morning stuff (washing etc). Called my Dad. Decided to head off into London. Ran into a friend in Brixton. Tubes shut. Got the bus into Victoria together. Then went off on my own. Walked up the Birdcage and cut across to Westminster Abbey. Basically this place is full of loads of famous / royal dead people – and really – that’s it. The tombstones and sarcophaguses are detailed and extravagant but well it just goes on and on.

From memory – I found St Paul’s Cathedral much more enjoyable when I saw it in 2004 – I plan to go back there for a visit post renovations. Anyway, a few tombstones of note: Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare. Dad also kept telling me that Sir Winston Churchill’s tombstone was there as well – so was keeping an eye out for it – but seriously there’s thousands of tombstones there. As I was about to leave – there it was – Churchill’s tombstone – the very last one – it seemed to have made it all worth it. Dad – I took that photo for you if you’re reading this (you’re not actually allowed to take photos in this place). Westminster Abbey: DONE.

I then went outside, found a patch of grass and sat in the shade for a bit to figure out what I was doing next. That’s the cool thing about being a solo traveler (has its advantages and disadvantages) – is that you go where you want to go, when you want, for as little or long as you want. It would be nice to have a travel partner but if you want to stop for a rest, go into a weird shop or whatever, you can. I’ve seen a few tourists yelling / arguing with each other a few times now and glad I’m not in their shoes.

So anyway, I walked through St James’s park. There were pelicans in a pond. I wasn’t expecting to see pelicans this far from the ocean. There was also cool plant figurines of people on bikes. I walked over to Trafalgar Square, decided I’d had enough and found a bus to take me home. I actually got to take some really good photos from the top of the double decker bus as you’ll see.

Sunday 5th August

Today I slept in (hoorah!). I had quite a hard time trying to decide what to do today, but it all became crystal clear as soon as I looked at my London wall map – Regents Park and London Zoo. I packed a lunch of fruit salad and bussed and tubed it over to Regents Park. It was another hot gorgeous day – I actually wouldn’t have minded going for a swim. In the park there were people sunbathing in bikinis (even though there was no where to swim).

Anyway, Regent’s Park is massive, green and beautiful. I went to Queen Mary’s Rose Garden which is just gorgeous – I’ve never seen so many roses in my life before. There was a beautiful pond with giant fish in it. I found a shady tree and ate my fruit salad for lunch. I then trekked off to the opposite end of the park to London Zoo (it’s part of the park). I saw gorillas, a sleepy tiger (hey tiger, vake uuuup), two lions who happened to mate (yes I took pictures – but they’re tasteful!), giraffes, bears etc etc etc. I liked the gorillas and lions the best. The giraffes were pretty cool too – very pretty. Tip: do not buy the map when you buy your ticket – it’s a waste of money – there’s signs everywhere on where to go inside the zoo.

After the zoo, I came out at a weird exit which was actually quite close to Camden Town (10 minute walk). My feet were starting to drag and I looked up and recognized this pub that I’d been to before – the Dublin Castle – so stopped in for 2 drinks and kicked my feet up on a stool. My plan was to get the tube from Camden Town so I could get on the Northern Line and jump off at Stockwell and get the bus from Stockwell to Brixton. Camden Town tube was in exit only mode – so I had to walk what seemed like ages to the next tube station instead. Eventually made my way home – there was some sort of festival going on in Brixton and police everywhere watching by – but I just wanted to get home, have some dinner, relax etc.

Anyhoo, I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this but I’ve got a couple of small trips planned. On Sunday 19th August, I’m going to Cardiff (Wales) for the day. And there’s a long weekend at the end of this month, so I’m off to the Lakes District and Liverpool from 24th – 27th August – hoorah! Hope to plan a few more holidays when I get paid properly next in September (ah contracting..). Hope everyone is well - Manda :)

Left my soul there.. down by the sea..

2007-07-29T20:36:00.000+01:00

Today I had all sorts of plans of doing things around London. Eg the red bull air race was on which looked pretty fun. But then I thought, I really really need to get out of London. So I looked up trains to Brighton late lastnight and saw it only took an hour to get out there. Having lived by the water most of my life, I do need to reconnect with it everynow and then. And the Thames is about appealing as and brown as our Brisbane river. Hence, Brighton was close and off I went. I got there at about lunch time - the weather forecast was average. It was a bit cloudy, but it certainly wasn't raining (compared to the rest of the country which is flooding - apparently this is the wettest summer on record - grr).

Now, I know beaches over here aren't like beaches at home. Brighton's beaches have giant soft round pebbles (no sand). They're actually really nice to walk on, and are quite comfortable to lie on as well. It was strangely refreshing to not have to brush sand off or have sand in every nook and cranny. I walked along the boardwalks and as the afternoon progressed, there were less clouds and more sun. I caught a mini electric train that runs along the beach up towards a marina. The beach was much quieter up this way. I also passed a place called CRAZY golf - a mini putt putt place on the beach. I found a nice spot on the beach and took in the blue sea and soaked up some rays. I even took a photo of the sun. I have missed the sea and the sun.

Later on, I got some fresh prawns and lobster and hot chips and ate them by the beach. There's loads of cafes, pubs, shops, rides, amusement type things - it's got a great atmosphere. It was starting to get late and I really didn't want to leave. It'd be nice to go there for a weekend. I returned to London feeling refreshed, warm and happy - that smiling on the inside stuff - it was just what I needed. Anyway, I've posted all my Brighton photos here: www.amanda.com.au/uk/brighton/

Enjoy!

Simpsons movie review

2007-07-28T22:22:00.000+01:00

First tip, go to a late session when there’ll be no kids there. I’ve always thought the Simpsons isn’t a children’s show – small children will get bored or won’t understand what’s happening. Now that that’s out of the way…

The attention to detail in the Simpsons movie is amazing. I haven’t read a review yet that even mentions or acknowledges it. The animation is very different to a regular Simpsons episode. It is very polished. The angles that they use are very out of the box for the Simpsons, scenery and objects take on a very three dimensional feel. I’m guessing a lot of 3D technology was used to render various scenery and objects eg the lake, or the fire in the fire torches which would normally be a blue lake with some squiggly lines or a fire would just be red and orange with no detail. You get a closer and deeper look into the Simpsons universe simply because of the attention to detail. Normally when the Simpsons are driving in the car, the background whizzes past as a blur or as a loop of images. This time you get to see in great detail what is in the background. You also get to see things that wouldn’t be in a normal Simpsons episode – bart’s “doodle” or Otto lighting up a bong that push the boundaries and probably wouldn’t be allowed on normal tv, but make the movie hilarious. The creators of the Simpsons movie have really stepped up to the mark – and seeing it on the big screen amplifies this.

People who say the Simpsons movie is just like a really long regular episode of the Simpsons are completely wrong. And if you need a comparison – go watch the Family Guy Movie – which is literally three episodes tacked together (but three very good episodes at that). The well thought out plot keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next. There’s drama, there’s tension, there’s deep and heart felt emotion, and of course it makes you laugh. Years of Homer’s funny but stupid decisions, rudeness, selfish behavior and lack of consideration finally boil over to the point into real life seriousness where it’s no longer funny and threatens everything that is the Simpsons.

The acting is brilliant and real. In particular, my hat goes off to Julie Kavner who plays Marge, Patty and Selma (although Patty and Selma didn’t make an appearance in the movie). In a crucial family moment in the movie, I was brought to tears by the pure and raw talent and acting of this woman – a truly heart felt and fantastic performance. Marge truly is the glue that keeps this family together.

The Simpsons has been taken out of its restricted confines and limitations of a 22 minute tv episode and have now had the freedoms and luxury of time and technology, talented writers and actors to get it just right on the big screen. I’ll definitely being going back for a second viewing. 5 stars!

Weekend update

2007-07-24T21:31:00.000+01:00

Typical English conversation, translations and observations.

Compulsory greeting: “Hiya” – not hi, but always hiya. Everything is generally referred to as “a complete nightmare”. Everything is also generally “completely rubbish”. Everything is also “pants”. On another note, pants is the same thing as underpants (not jeans or trousers). “Scum” is what the local drug dealers refer to as pot – so caution, they’re not calling you scum - they're just referring to the drug as scum. Duvet = doona. Plasters = bandaids. Lashed = drunk.

Extra! Extra! I can’t be bothered with a full on blog entry so here’s my weekend,(just for something different) as headlines:

Friday 20 July: Amanda receives package from Australia containing promite. Amanda stays in and sets up long awaited wireless internet, chaotic weekend ahead.

Saturday 21 July: Amanda enjoys long awaited promite on toast for breakfast. Sorely missed. England is flooding – where is the sun? Lambeth Country Show is in town. 2 freakish / random bird incidents: A bird does a giant shit on Amanda’s bag whilst lunching in the park. A large escapee vulture nearly lands on / flies into Amanda at Lambeth Country Show from Birds of Prey exhibition. Amanda has a few drinks, misses a gig - sleeps for 14 hours instead. Oops.

Sunday 22 July: Giant sleep in needed badly. Amanda watches everyone at the Lovebox weekend get shitfaced, smoke dope and snort coke off credit cards. Amanda most sober person at Lovebox weekender, yet continues to have good time and dance. B52s and Groove Armada rock out. Feet ready to fall off again, collapses into bed.

Monday 23 July: Amanda visits Crazy Bear cocktail bar with secret mysterious mirror menagerie bathroom. No bears in site. Amanda enjoys sirloin steak risotto at the Risotto Bar. (MEEEAT - haven't eaten steak in quite a while). Amanda annoyed at tube for being shut - begrudgingly has to get tube plus bus to get home.

And that's a wrap..

Giant blog entry

2007-07-15T20:33:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! Sorry about the lack of blog entries - it's been annoying without internet at home. So to get things started, here are all the photos I've been taking: www.amanda.com.au/uk/weekends/

Sat – Sun 14-15 July 2007

Friday night I met up with my old work mate Nicole (from QFRS at Whyte Island) who’s out here for a short holiday. Was good to catch up with someone from home! We met at Covent Garden and headed off, ending up in Soho at a pub, then made our way to the Masala Zone Indian restaurant – very yummy. Nicole was staying at her sister’s out in Slough (middle of nowhere) so had to get the last train. Was a great night none the less. I think we're going to try and go see a musical next week.

Saturday morning I had to wait for the Virgin Media technician to come back and “fix” my internet. Not that it’s ever worked since the previous Saturday when it was installed. Turns out my area isn’t ready for cable (even though they installed it). Grrr. Have cancelled my account and am signing up for ADSL with another provider. Such a muck around. The unsecured wireless started working again, so am taking this opportunity to update my blog. Anyway, after that, I had to wait for some concert tickets to arrive – KT Tunstall. And then tried to go to the post office, but alas it was shut by the time I got there. Can’t remember what else I did – oh had a giant Mexican cook off – loads of left overs. Watched a DVD, painted toenails, did a French polish – relaxing girly stuff.

Anyway, Sunday time for more site seeing. First stop: Harrods. Was very busy. Had to restrain myself. Bought a couple of presents. Everything there is just so nice.. and expensive. I went into the food hall at Harrods and salivated. My mouth, stomach and eyes were excited. The food there looked.. amazing. So I bought up on some Middle Eastern food – vine leaves, falafel, hummus, tabouli, pita bread, lamb kebab thing etc – all in takeaway containers and headed off to Hyde Park. Plonked myself on a deck chair in front of the pond/lake, munched away, read the newspaper, relaxed, got my a-z (refidex) out and figured out where I was going next. I make a point of trying to walk as much around central London itself, so set off along Park Lane (which seems to go on forever), by which point it was raining. I then hit Marble Arch – which I was expecting to be this impressive monument, but it was quite boring. Then headed down Oxford Street, and escaped into the famous Selfridges Department Store - again in awe, but was starting to get cranky, tired, sore feet and a headache. Made my way to the nearest tube and headed home and fell down tired when I got home into a deep powernap.

Sat – Sun 7-8 July 2007

OMG – the sun came out. After an atrociously dreadfully depressing long week that left me wondering what the hell am I doing here, my friend the sun finally reappeared. I read the book that everyone wrote in before I left and I started a list of places I wanted to visit in London, the UK and the.. world. It’s a big list, but I think it’s doable. Anyway, there was loads going on in London this weekend – Wimbledon, Tour de France and Live Earth. On the Friday night, I saw some bands in Spittlefield. My favourite was this crazy Japanese techno band Lucha Libre - with live brass, drums etc. Had a well deserved sleep in on Saturday. Hung around for Virgin to come install my internet and watched Live Earth on tv that afternoon and evening. Incidentally, the internet didn’t work at all and a technician is coming back the following Saturday – grrr.

Sunday, I did loads of housework, mowed the lawn and headed out on a big weekend walk. The sun was still out – hoorah! First stop – Westminster Abbey. It was closed on Sundays but I took some photos of the outside - will have to go back. Then headed off in the direction of Trafalgar Square. Le Tour de France had passed through there the day before but there were still grand stands and huge screens still broadcasting it from there. Then headed down Regent Street and hit Piccadilly Circus. Then headed off to Chinatown, and had Chinese for the first time since I’ve been here – my serving was way too much for one person. Yum. Later on I headed over to Battersea Park. Feet were ready to fall off yet again.

Sat – Sun 30 June - 1 July 2007

There were tube works on the Victoria line which meant my tube station (and many others) were shut the entire weekend. And it was bucketing rain. Parts of England have actually been flooding. Eventually ventured outside to pick up a package from the post centre which just turned out to be tickets that required signing for. Bought a few more concert tickets: Keane, The Bravery, Michael Buble and the Lovebox weekender festival (Groove Armada, the B52s and the Presets are the ones I want to see). KT Tunstall tickets are onsale too – dying to see her. Tickets are fairly cheap/reasonable too. There is certainly loads to do and see here.. Just a pity the weather is so CRAP.

Bought a couple of pairs of shoes for work of which one of gave me blisters – ow, and a rubber bath mat so I don’t fall over in the shower again (very slippery), and bought a pair of scales which was scary – haven’t put on any weight – hoorah! People keep asking me about the “Heathrow Injection”. Apparently the traditional thing for us Aussies to do, is to come over here, drink like fish (ie pints), eat a lot of hot and wintery comfort and junk food and gain 10+ kilos. I’m sure for a lot of Aussies this is true, but for me it’s not. Me - I’m flat out drinking a pint. In fact, if I do drink a pint, I can’t even fit dinner in coz I’m so full. Haven’t eaten any comfort food – I get free fruit and lunches at work – so loads of salads and veg. And usually a very light dinner coz of the giant lunch. And not having a car means I am walking everywhere - so getting LOADS of exercise.

On the Sunday, they broadcast the Princess Diana concert live on TV. She would have been 46 on that day. Have to say, Prince William and Harry are quite down to earth considering.. everything. And what a great lady she was – so tragic. Anyway, was a fun concert to watch. Had a few drinks in the garden with Steph and sung along to all the Andrew Lloyd Webber songs in the kitchen they were playing / singing at the concert. Never realized how many of his songs I knew and used to sing in my high school choir / in concert band as well. Loads of memories came flooding back. Was also probably a good weekend to stay in coz they found all those bombs around London..

Anyway, I need to have a small whinge. I’ve been wanting to go to Wimbledon (didn’t end up going, and tickets were limited / expensive or had huge queues) – but it’s been raining heaps. Today, as I stood waiting for my BP minibus in the shelter, it of course started to rain and then started to hail. I stood there shivering thinking – is this what they call summer? I miss Australian weather. I then prepared myself for the joyous walk in pouring rain from the tube and home in my painful new shoes. I had a long hot shower when I got home and squeaked with pain when the hot water hit my blisters. I also stood on a piece of glass in the kitchen the night before (it was tiny).

And a number of times on the way to work or on the way home, my tube has been cancelled due to “a person on the tracks” – which they announce loudly over all the speakers. I couldn’t quite believe my ears the first time I heard that, but I’ve head it so many times now that it’s normal. In fact it’s so normal that it annoys me that this selfish person has decided to commit suicide and inconvenience thousands of people who are trying to live (and get to work / get home etc). Of course, then you have to get a bus instead, which of course are so packed or crammed with people from the tube. I remember one time I had to get the bus home because of a “person on the tracks” – you never get a seat, a young toddler had crapped its pants, there was some crazy dude swearing randomly (as there are everywhere), and you’re crammed in like sardines. Ah London life.. it has its ups and downs.

Sat & Sun 23-24 June 2007

Ventured to Leicester Square for the first time. Free musical show case going on. Loads of people. Walked round in circles / blocks before I actually found it. Got a free show bag of stuff. Wandered off to Covent Garden. I love Covent Garden – so many nice shops, places to eat, drink, the markets were amazing. I found this handmade purple bathrobe – it was beautiful. And only 165 pounds. I didn’t buy it. Did however buy a really nice pair of red earrings for 3 pounds (pictured). Watched some street performers and statue men.

Saturday night, went out to Clapham Junction to see Australian comedian Adam Hill. Very funny. Loads of Aussies and strangely groups of guys on bucks nights (who heckled him). The dancefloor had squares that lit up. Caught the nightbus home and had a giant sleep in. Watched the Glastonbury festival on TV the next day which looked like mud city. Was glad to be indoors.

Sat & Sun 16-17 June 2007

Queens Birthday weekend here. Saturday there was “Trooping of the Colour” which is basically a big horsey parade for the Queen. She certainly knows how to have a birthday. Loads of horses, troops, marching bands, cannons going off and planes flying over. The photos of the planes are awesome - from WW2 planes to current planes. In particular this one is just amazing (can’t believe how well it turned out!). The following day a lot of this official / ceremonial stuff was repeated for the 25th anniversary of the Falklands Island thing.

Saturday night, went to my first festival over here – the O2 wireless festival in Hyde Park. It went for 4 days – I just bought a ticket for the Saturday. I was too late to buy tickets for the Thursday night – I really wanted to see Queens of the Stoneage (DOH). Anyway, the main acts I saw were LCD Soundsystem and Daft Punk. LCD Soundsystem really funked out (in a good way – music was faster than their LP and bass guitar was really loud and funky just how I like it).

The stage / lighting show for Daft Punk was amazing. When they came on, the crowd suddenly went crazy and it turned into a mosh pit. Was quite close to the front. Daft Punk came out wearing space men outfits and matching helmets. After being elbowed in the head about 10 times (from people who were moshing to dance music) I felt as though I should be the one wearing a helmet and not these 2 DJs on stage in safe confines of their pyramid on stage. So I made my way to the side where the crowd thinned slightly so I didn’t feel like a sardine and actually move and dance like a normal person and enjoy it. Still had a fantastic view of the stage as well.

Sunday, slept in and went for a bike ride in Brockwell Park in the arvo. Rediscovered hills and calf muscles. Suddenly heard music playing somewhere. A band was playing in one of the basketball courts there under a camouflage tent. They sounded very funky/jazzy and most their songs somehow sounded like slowed down versions of Blue Suede Shoes – so quite catchy. Set off peddling again, stopped at a pond and rode home, didn’t fall off or get squished by a car (amazingly). And why are bike seats so uncomfortable? Owie. I also discovered there is a pub literally 10-20 metres from my house that I had no idea that it even existed on the way home.

ANYWAY, if you've managed to get this far through my blog, congratulations. And I endeavour to keep it more up to date when my REAL internet gets installed. To see the rest of the photos go here: www.amanda.com.au/uk/weekends/ - Speak to you all soon - Manda.

My internet has died, but I'm still alive

2007-07-10T21:02:00.000+01:00

Hi to those people who check up on my blog or have an RSS feed going. Yes, I'm still alive, but haven't been able to post anything to my blog as my free internet at home "died". You can still catch me on MSN at work though. Will hopefully have my proper (paid for) internet up and running soon, so will post a huge blog entry with lots of photos hopefully very soon when the cable technican comes back to finish the job. Speak to you all soon.. Manda.

Crazy people, famous people, started work, more site seeing around London, shopping in Oxford Street

2007-06-10T22:30:00.000+01:00

General observations - crazy and famous people.

There are lots of crazy people here. The sheer/huge population living here means everything is multiplied. You know when you see someone talking to themselves, but think – oh they might be talking into their hands free. But they’re not. Or then there’s the people having an argument with someone, but clearly, there is no one there – I call it their invisible enemy. Then there’s the crazy yelling religious people. Apparently we’re all sinners and going straight to hell and we all need saving. Needless to say it’s best to stay well clear of these crazy people and let them settle their argument with whoever it is they’re arguing / yelling at (ie themselves, their invisible enemy or God). It’s entertaining to say the least. Best advice is to keep your sunnies on and escape into your world of Ipod. And no one wears sunnies here - which I find really odd too - coz I love my sunnies..

Oh and the crazy NSW weather finally made the real news (on tv) here. Can't believe ships are beaching, flooding, storms etc. Sounds nuts.. Makes the schitzo weather here seem almost normal. Although it's been quite warm here lately! My shorts and miniskirts have *finally* been worn (was very skeptical when I packed them). I still take my umbrella with me everywhere - just in case.

News and celebrities. What an intertwined thing. When you get the tube, there are a number of different newspapers being given away at the entry/exit for free. So I've found myself reading the newspaper quite alot (which I never really used to do unless it was a weekend paper). Needless to say, what makes "news" here is quite questionable. And who is "famous" here is also quite questionable because I don't even understand why half these people are famous or in the news. Eg: Posh Spice aka Victoria Beckham. She recently won the "Woman of the Year" award. For what? As far as I can see, she is a washed up, has been ex Spice Girl, musically talentless, anorexic, boob jobbed, overtanned, married to a famous football player, media whore. And then there's Kate Moss - who I respect as a model who doesn't look like an underfed starving model, who has retained her look and cuteness over the years, but again, anything she does or touches works for her - eg being busted for drugs works for her and others. Same goes for George Michael. It seems the worse these celebrities do, the more attention they get and the more famous and successful they are. It's almost like celebrities are making it "cool" or the "in thing" to drink drive, do drugs etc. Oh and I do think it's quite hilarious that Paris Hilton has been sent back to jail.

Tuesday: back to work

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go *whistle*.. Ok, so Tuesday I started work at BP. The BP shuttle bus picked me up from the train station and dropped me to the site. They run constantly during peak time in the morning, then every 15 minutes. I had a freshly imaged laptop on my desk. My login had already been created. I logged in straight away. I opened up Outlook. There was no stupid start up wizard to go through - it just WORKED. Anyway, I spent most of my first day in meetings and meeting people and being shown around and how things work. Everybody uses MSN messenger - both internally and externally which is pretty forward thinking for a big organisation. In the many kitchens there's a free coffee machine, tea, hot chocolate, free milk, sugar, juices and fruit.

The "Link Restaurant" ie, the cafeteria is like a food court or sizzler. They cook breakfast and lunch every day. You have a swipe card which gives you a free allowance of 5 pounds per day to spend on food in the cafeteria (or you can top it up with your own money if you spend more). You can choose from the soup stall, traditional foods stall, vegetarian, pasta, pizza, world of flavours, jacket potato stall, sandwich bar, dessert bar, fresh juice and drinks stall - it's nuts! And you get real knives and forks.

After you finish your lunch, you take your lunch tray, plate etc, and there's a conveyor belt which you just dump your tray onto (ie, you don't clean off anything) and then it disappears to be cleaned (I imagine there's cleaning fairies or oompa lumpas on the other side cleaning them). Also, there's an express shop with premade sandwiches etc and also an online service where you can order a custom made sandwich or baguette which gets stored in a special fridge for you to collect at your time of choice. And then there’s the grab and go shop as well. There is a country club, beauty salon, dentist, doctor, physio, osteopath, childcare centre, monthly market stalls and much more.

Anyway, I think I’m settling into the job well. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be embedded in each of the teams, reviewing and improving their Sharepoint sites and giving them further training. It’s also been 2 months since I finished work – so I’ve had the luxury of sleeping in for the last two months. Anyone who knows me well knows I am not a morning person, and I’d even forgotten this myself - so getting up early and back into a routine was challenging – but I’ll get used to it again. Oh and my induction I found out nearly 5000 people work at our site. I haven’t taken any photos of the site, but I did find a few on the internet (above)..

More site seeing around London – my 7km walk

The last 2 Saturdays, I’ve done some huge walks by myself around London. On Saturday, I was supposed to go on a guided walking tour around London. However, some tube lines were cancelled on the weekend, and basically missed the meeting time for the tour. So I did my own walk (click link to see a map) and walked from the Tower of London, along the River Thames, chucked a right at Big Ben, cut across to St James Park, then over to Buckingham Palace and over to Victoria tube station. Took me all afternoon and feet were killing me after that! But yes, there were many other sites along the way on the Thames which I took photos of. I’ve also included photos from last Saturday as well (I walked along the other side of the Thames, along South Bank). So click here to see all the photos…

This weekend has actually been quite warm (and no rain either!), so decided to take advantage of the nice weather and the weekend, and well of London – cos there is SO much to see here.. So on Sunday, I thought I’d check out Oxford Street – ie Shopping Central. So many shops, most of them multi-level. If ever I am in need of clothes, shoes – I now know where to go.

Amazingly I restrained myself (waiting to get paid coz I’ve only just started work and haven't been paid yet) and found a couple of super bargains including my new 13 pound work outfit – plus I think I can wear the jacket for going out clothes as well. The jacket actually has a wide pinstripe and two cute ruffled pockets at the front and the skirt has that “David Jones” style black and white check pattern. Bought some chai chocolate tea, jasmine green tea from this really cool tea shop – so didn’t spend that much at all.

So it’s back to work for me and plan to do more walking around London every Saturday – so stay tuned and don’t forget to check out all the photos: www.amanda.com.au/uk/london/ - Manda :)

Camden Town, British Museum, Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath

2007-06-01T02:09:00.000+01:00

Ok, first things first: I have taken SO many photos this week - I've had to upload them to my other website. So if you want to see all my photos, go here: www.amanda.com.au/uk . Otherwise read on to see what's been happening...

Sunday 27th May
The weather had been "demotivating" me, so today I decided, I don’t care how crap the weather is – I’m going out and doing something. So I headed off to the Camden Town markets. Of course the Camden Town tube station was shut, so had to get a bus from Euston tube station. Again, had no idea where I was going, but a lot of people were going the same place as me, so jumped off with them. I’d forgotten how HUGE these markets were. They’re like a living breathing museum with all sorts of knickknacks, clothes galore, jewelry, tv stalls, food stalls – it really just goes on and on.. The whole place is practically markets – I could have spent all day there – there’s just so many alleyways and nooks and crannies crammed with more and more market stalls. I bought a couple of tops, a really cheap black corduroy jacket, postcards etc. Love it there, definitely going back again.

Garden party
Oh the previous Thursday, we had a few people around for dinner and drinks in our back garden. We put some picnic rugs and cushions on the grass, laid out some nibblies and drinks and everyone came over. We played this awesome board game called Articulate – it's like the reverse of Baulderdash - go buy it if you’ve never played it – it’s loads of fun and quick and easy to play. Anyway, cooked up a tonne of spaghetti and potato salad etc.. we all had more drinks. And then Steph and co all decided to go and dress up as Katy – so came back down wearing bright red lip stick and some very interesting outfits. The night ended when our flimsy outdoor table was knocked over and came crashing to the ground along with several glasses and empty bottles (we are never using this table ever again). Fun night though!

Monday 28th May
Today I went to the British museum. I saw the Egyptian, American and Mexican exhibitions. The weather was absolutely horrid. I stepped outside into a cyclonic freezer. My hands were like icebergs, I thought I was going to fly away with my umbrella – it was something like 5 degrees and the weather lady said this is the kind of weather they have in January (ie real British winter). Yikes. Anyway, the museum was packed as it was a public holiday. The place is massive. I think I need to go back and explore more of it by myself.

Tuesday 29th May
Today I got up super early and did a bus tour out to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath. After the dreadful weather yesterday, today the sun was out - there wasn't a cloud in the Simpson sky - was perfect weather. Anyway, Windsor Castle is huge – there is so much stuff inside there. It’s full of history and beautiful. I bought myself a pair of what I call “Royal Slippers” from a shop inside Windsor Castle – they’re white bath slippers with a gold crest embroidered on them – and they’re comfy and warm but I've already managed to spill red wine on them (but got the stain out right away).

Next we went onto Stonehenge. We spent an hour there. You really only need about half an hour max. For some reason I thought the stones would be bigger (but obviously they weren’t). It’s right next to a main road as well and there sheep in a field next to it – which kind of takes away from any mysteriousness that you might associate with it. So onto Bath.

Bath is where Jane Austin lived and where Pride and Prejudice and all those old timey movies were filmed. I was inlove with this town. Limestone everywhere. Cute little shops. Ahh. I would like to go back there for a weekend. We visited the famous Roman Baths there as well - which were really cool..

Other than that, I have been pottering around organizing myself for starting work next week and taking advantage of the fact that I can sleep in for a few more days yet. We needed some outdoor furniture, and the people down the road had moved out and all their stuff was out front – and low and behold – 3 plastic chairs and a deck chair later, we now have garden furniture. Found some real bargains in the Brixton Markets – bought 4 Espirit dinner plates and some knives and forks. And Katy showed me a few other shops I hadn’t been into yet, including some second hand and charity shops and I picked up THE best pair of jeans ever for 6 pounds 50 pence – total bargain. You can’t have enough jeans here.

For the rest of the week, I’m going to do some walking around in London itself and visit some more museums, galleries, cathedrals etc. I’m evening thinking of doing the London duck tour – which I thought might be a bit different to the normal touristy double decker bus thing. And I think I’m going back to Battersea Park again to see some live bands on Sunday. Anyway, I start work on Tuesday (hoorah!) – which is exactly 2 months to the day of my last day working at Emergency Services. Speak to you all soon! And make sure you check out all the photos at www.amanda.com.au/uk - Manda :)

More interviews, Amanda gets a job, beautiful parks...

2007-05-22T20:48:00.000+01:00

What’s interesting living in a new place is getting used to the new sounds around you. I’ve learnt to tune out from the sirens that seem to be constantly screaming. I swear the police and ambulance just put them on for fun sometimes in that they seem to well always be on. And I no longer here the church bells clanging away. I love walking through the park near our house to get home in the day time. Birds will be singing and without fail, I will see two squirrels on the very green grass – it’s just gorgeous... Oh and this photo on the right is of Battersea Park (and there's more further on).

Ok, some new music I’ve discovered while I’ve been here: The Gossip and Patti Smith – two women with amazing voices and they're not even from here. Razorlight is another great band. And there was this huge free festival that went on this weekend called the Radio 1 Big Weekend – insane line up but unfortunately all the tickets were given away months ago – so I’m forced to watch it on digital tv instead. Oh and I found out I that one of my fave bands ..and you will know us by the Trail of Dead is coming to London - yay!!!

Anyway, my bestest news ever is that I’ve scored a job – I start working at BP in 2 weeks time (on Tuesday 5th June) as a Sharepoint Admin – great job, great company, the site is amazing with onsite doctor, dentist, dry cleaner, café, restaurant, country club etc etc. Here’s what I’ve been up to this last week and this coming week – I’m hoping to do some touristy stuff like go on the red double decker open roof buses. And next week I’m heading off on a day tour to Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath. So here’s the week that was:

Tuesday 15th May

Today, I got my hair cut, coloured, highlights etc at Atlantic hair. 85 quid later – it actually looks pretty good – the highlights stand out more now – and my justification – I need to look good for interviews and my fringe was getting in my eyes and driving me nuts. After this I headed to Argos – my new favourite shop and bought an electric blanket. I’m sure the people thought I was nuts – but it’s been really cold and boy it was nice to dive into a warm bed that night.

Today I saw the BP Sharepoint job advertised on one of the job websites. I applied. I rang the agency. I finally got hold of someone. They’d already seen my CV before, but for some reason didn’t think I could get to the job at BP – which as it turns out – it only takes me one tube and one train to get there – about a half hour trip. Anyway, after speaking to them and clarifying that I *can* get there quite easily, they sent my CV off. That’s the thing with the majority of recruiters and agencies here – you have to ring THEM to get the ball rolling to get them to even look at your CV, even if you’ve already sent your CV and applied for the job already etc – it’s the opposite to what I’m used to, but that’s just how it is here generally.

Oh and today I saw the sun! I ran outside into garden to absorb some sunlight like an excited child before it quickly vanished again. That night, me and Steph had some red wine and chocolate and watch some bizarre tv – “How to look good Naked” – a show kind of like Queer Eye, but ends with a semi naked photo shoot, and a previously frumpy and now made over woman doing a strut down a catwalk in her underwear in front of 2000 people.

Strange but fascinating tv here… I’m also enjoying watching music documentaries on digital tv here such as the “The Seven Ages of Rock” series which I watched on Saturday night just gone featured Jimi Hendrix . I never realized Jimi Hendrix made it big here in London first before he went back to America. I’m so going to have to find a copy of his performance at Monterey – it’s a defining moment. Anyway British documentaries are in a class of their own (and no offence, but Australian tv leaves a lot to be desired).

Wednesday 16th May

Today, I had an interview with GTA who are a travel wholesaler. The job was working in their helpdesk maintaining and updating various websites. All was going good – I got up, cooked a big breakfast – didn’t want my tummy rumbling in the interview. Watched the morning news. Went to have a shower. No hot water. Left the tap on. Still no hot water. I couldn’t go to an interview unshowered! Then all of a sudden someone was bashing on my door and it was the electricity reader man.

That’s the other odd thing here – you have to let the gas and electricity people into your house to read the meters. It’s a bit unnerving letting a potential lunatic into your house. Anyway, I said to him – by the way – our hot water isn’t working – and he offered to look at our gas boiler and presto he adjusted some setting and yay hot water. Anyway, I got a tube to Barbican, amazingly got there on time, had the interview – the two guys who interviewed me were really friendly and reminded me a lot of the people I used to work with – but oddly they couldn’t tell me what the salary was?

As it turns out I was actually offered this job the week after, but I’d already accepted the BP job by that point (and the BP job is way better / what I want). That afternoon, I heard back from the agency about the BP job, and they wanted me to have a phone interview with them – so that was lined up for 4pm that day and it went for 20 minutes and I thought it went quite well at the time.

Thursday 17th May

The agency rang me again first thing, and said my phone interview went great and wanted me to come in that day to meet them at the agency. So I was getting ready and literally about to leave the house when the agency rang me again and said change of plans – you’re going straight to BP for your interview instead.

Yay, so I went out to BP and met with them and had my interview chat / in their giant café on the upper floor. I’m going to take some photos of this site once I start work – it’s amazing.. Anyway, caught the train and tube back to Brixton and went to Marks and Spence and picked up some fish, fetta and salad ingredients for dinner (yum). Opened a bottle of wine, Steph got home, we sat down and had dinner together and got ready and headed out to the Dogstar bar and a few other clubs. Big night.

Friday 18th May

Hangover. My head hurt in more ways than one. My phone rang and woke me up. It was the agency. I’d gotten the BP job. The agency wanted to meet me finally. I arranged to go in later that day and went back to bed but was so excited that I couldn’t actually sleep. I got myself together eventually and dragged myself on the tube and headed to Mansion House station. I got some takeaway on the way. I met the lady from the agency, got some paperwork out of the way and was on my way.

Got the tube home and what was really cool is that at Victoria Station there was a busker / guitarist and his sound echoed all the way from the tunnels to the platform – but what really made me listen and enjoy it was that all the songs he was playing were all piano songs, but played on guitar – it was strange, delicate and beautiful. Anyway, dragged myself home. And I have to say all this walking everywhere everyday – it’s good exercise and all my jeans starting to fall down as a result! Who would’ve thought I could survive without a car.

Saturday 19th May

Well, by the time my weekends have been coming around, I’ve been so busy running around during the week that I’m happy to veg out a bit, hang out at home and catch up on washing, housy stuff etc. Tonight I watched some live footage from the Radio 1 Big Weekend festival going on and the Jimi Hendrix doco. I can’t believe he was only 27 when he died. Terrible terrible shame..

Sunday 20th May

Today I went to a charity music gig held in Battersea Park. The Brits love their parks over here – so green, so huge, and so beautiful. I caught the bus there which was interesting because I had absolutely no idea when I was supposed to get off – but I actually got off at the right stop and navigated my way to the park with my A-Z (mini map book). Actually finding the gig was also interesting because the place is so huge, but I eventually found it (I headed toward the music).

I met my new friend Josh there (and his friends), sat in front of a giant pond / lake with people in sailing around in row boats and peddle boats, sat back and enjoyed the music. Really nice day – want to go back there and explore more of the park and have a picnic – but get this – barbeques are banned in most of these parks! Hmph.

That’s one thing I want to buy or build over here is a bloody barbeque, and have one with a real wood and fire and none of this coal burning stuff. And get this – they even have disposable barbeques here - it's an aluminium tray with coles and wire grill section on top.

Anyway, that's the week that was - stay tuned! - Manda :)

Interviews, Soho, Camden Town, live bands and more..

2007-05-12T17:49:00.000+01:00

Monday 7/5/07

Monday night I headed out with my housemate Katie and her friend Woody (aka Mark pictured in the photo) into London itself into Soho which I discovered is kind of well – gay central. First of all we went to a bar called Trash Palace, then to a club called the Ghetto (how appropriate). A live band called Language played there who were actually really good – you can listen to their songs on their site. And being in a gay nightclub was somehow strangely comforting because I didn't have to worry about being hit on - I was just there to have a good time!

Anyway, I had a bit of a boogie after the band finished. Songs that got me up and dancing (and jumping around lots) were LCD Soundsystem – North American Scum, Rage Against the Machine – Killing in the Name Of and Muse – Hysteria (god I love the guitar solo toward the end of that song..). Needed a good dance. On the way home, I saw the giant gold Freddy Mercury statue where We Will Rock You is playing, Big Ben, the London Eye and a few other things which got me excited. Didn’t go to sleep until about 3.30/4ish. Yikes.

Tuesday 8/5/07

Today my long awaited second suitcase of stuff from home was arriving by courier. There was no way I was leaving the house until it arrived. When it finally came mid-afternoon – it was like Christmas opening my suitcase –I’d forgotten what’d I’d packed because it seemed so long ago. Of note, I had my big fluffy towels, my warm and daggy tracky dacks, my pink flannelette leopard print pj pants (very attractive), my bathrobe, my duck down doona (yay!), and a picture of Kiddy which I stuck on my wall. I slept very happily that night all rugged up in my doona – was nice to have some things that made me feel “at home” again. Oh if anyone feels like sending me Promite or Aktavite – email me and I’ll give you my address – can’t get either of them over here!

Thursday - Friday 10-11/5/07

Thursday was my “planning” day. I had to figure out how to get from Brixton to Staines for an interview on Friday. The job wasn’t actually in Staines (it's in Feltham where their Data Centre is), but that’s where the interview was. And after finding out it was going to cost 70-80 pounds to get a taxi there, I quickly decided public transportation was my only option. After doing various searches on tube and rail websites, I had to get the tube, 2 trains and a cab from the train station to the interview (whoa). I made it from the tube to Victoria train station where fate was actually working in my favour – it took a good 5 minutes lining up to buy my train tickets – there was a huge queue (I hadn’t put this into my timings), but luckily my train was delayed by 5 or 10 minutes – if it hadn’t have been I would’ve missed it and the connecting train that I had to transfer onto and the cab waiting for me at the other end.

So I made it to the interview and I was actually early. The job was for a Technical Author (it’s a SharePoint related job) working for T-Systems – I think the interview went well – it went for a solid hour - was quite intense and they're a huge company. I’ll find out next week what the outcome is I'd say. I also have another interview for a different job lined up on Wednesday in London itself – so we’ll see what happens. After the interview I made it all the way back to Brixton, went for a chai latte at Cafe Nero, got home and out of my interview clothes and stupid high heels (ow).

I plonked myself on the couch in the living room and listened to Queen – A Night at the Opera – which someone dear to me from home recently recommended that I download and listen to it (I love Queen incase you hadn’t figured out yet). In particular, I was told to listen to “You’re My Best Friend” (and a few other songs) – because they’d been thinking about me on the other side of the world (click the link to read the lyrics). Now I've heard and I'm sure everyone else has heard this song a zillion times before - but I sat there and *really* listened to the lyrics and I cried for the first time since I’ve been here. Music makes me cry sometimes – it’s powerful stuff.. It was a happy and sad moment in one. Beautiful and heart felt words and lyrics..

Oh, I forgot to mention that on Thursday night I ventured out to Camden Town with Josh – a friend of a friend from home to see some live music. I have to say, all this getting around on public transport, catching the tube and trains here and there has really boosted my confidence knowing I can get from A to B (via X, Y and Z). I was kind of mentally “scared” of doing these things initially – but now I know it’s nothing to be scared of at all. I have my tube map, the public tranport websites are great, there’s signs everywhere and having an Oyster card makes things even easier (it’s a swipe card you put credit on instead of buying tickets and you can top it up online). Anyway, Josh’s brother was in a band that was playing at the place where we were going to in Camden Town. The lead singer - her name is Amy and she’s in the photo with Josh – turns out before she was a singer, she was a dancer and was in the Muse – Our Time is Running Out music clip – there you go!

Anyway, that’s all for now, hopefully next time I post another blog entry there’ll be more / good news on the job front. Oh also, I have a really good phone card offer at the moment - I can call Australia for free on Saturdays during May from my midday to midnight - which is Saturday 9pm to Sunday 9am Brisbane/Australia time - so if you have a landline, email me your number so I can call you (I seem to mostly have people's mobiles - doh!) - but it's for May only (and other random months during the year). Speak to you all soon – and someone please send me Promite and Aktavite!! Oh and I saw my first squirrel and fox the other day too! Manda :)

Oh PS: I found out Mogwai (one of my favourite bands) was DJing in a local club here in Brixton – but it turns out it was last weekend – I missed out – damn! I am definitely living in the right place for music though! Bye! And PPS: If you see photos of food / dinnerplates on here - I like taking photos of dinners I cook at home when it looks fab / yummy. AND PPPS: good luck to 2 special people who start new jobs on Monday :)

Settling into London and TOOL is coming to Brixton!

2007-05-07T15:50:00.000+01:00

Well this last week has what I have called “getting my life organised / sorted out” week. On Tuesday I moved into the new house. I’m all unpacked. I did lots of washing. I cleaned windows. I mowed the lawn! – which is something I’ve managed to avoid most of my life. The lawn mowers here are strange.

It was orange, electric, had no wheels (wtf!) and a rubber bottom – it was like some strange sort of electric hovercraft lawn mower hybrid that’s supposed to glide seamlessly over your soft lush green grass.

This device would never survive in Australia with our brown stick like excuse for what might have been grass a long time ago. Now this lawn hadn’t been mowed in quite some time (see before and after shots), and extra caution had to be made to not mow over the long cord. And surprisingly, because the grass is so soft and green here, the mower does actually “glide” over it. Anyway, enough about mowing (moe, moe, moe) – I mowed and it looks great – now let us never speak of it again.

What else have I been up to – oh – I’m supposed to be having an interview soon for a Technical Author / Sharepoint job. All my work clothes and suits were totally crushed from moving over here so I took my new snazzy Cue business suit that Bahadir bought for me before I left (thanks!) to the dry cleaners. So anyway, have been busy applying for jobs online, walking into town everyday, running errands, sorting things out.

Friday night, Steph, her friend El and myself had dinner here and then headed out to a local pub – the Effra. Had my first pint of beer here. We then headed to the Brixton Bar and Grill for more drinks. There was a friendly dog walking around and underneath tables (odd, but cute). Anyway it was pretty late so we decided to head home. We walked back to Steph’s old place and I started to walk back to the new house.

Now near the new place there’s this giant church. The front half is actually a church, the back half is this pumping night club called “Mass”. So curiosity got the better of me, and I went inside by myself. A large black lady (ie the bouncer) frisked me and my bag very thoroughly inspected. A 10 pound covercharge later (yikes), and I was in. Clearly everyone in this place was on drugs, jumping up and down to loud doof doof dance music with glowsticks – no drunk person could possibly have this much energy.

A lot guys weren’t wearing shirts which led me to thinking they were possibly gay - but I wasn’t particularly interested in finding out. I had two drinks and got chatted up by a short unattractive French fireman (ugh) whose opening / pick up line was “do you want to sleep with me”. (Clearly the answer was a big fat NO). So, I walked home by myself – which was a short 2 minute walk – but don’t worry! There’s CCTV (security cameras) everywhere here – even on my street – so if anything bad ever happens at least it’ll be on film :P

Anyway, on Saturday, the girls moved all their stuff in and I decided to cook them up a storm as I knew they would be exhausted after the big move. I’d already done my fair share of packing, moving and cleaning back in Brisbane, so I was not envious of their situation. So I cooked up a big serve of Spag Bol with salad for us (see photos). I’d bought the ingredients fresh from the markets which was way cheap – I’m going back there to get all my fresh food! Yum.

So at the moment, I’m just settling in, “trying” to save money until I get a job, plus the weather has been pretty crap (cold, rainy etc) so it’s a good excuse to stay in at the moment – and (!) I just got the digital tv tuner card working here so have been watching a an all day Scrubs marathon curled up in bed (there’s like tonnes of free to air digital tv channels here – way more than Australia). Anyhoo, once I start working, I’ll hopefully start doing some more exciting things and venturing out further.

Also! - I just bought 2 tickets to TOOL (oops and yay!) who are playing at the Brixton Academy www.brixton-academy.co.uk at the end of August. Their first show was sold out, so I just HAD to buy tickets - and don’t have anyone to go with yet either! Anyway, the Brixton Academy is a legendary live music venue here. Loads of cool bands play there and it’s one of the things I do want to do here – see lots of live music. So once I get a job, I want to go see these bands who are touring the UK this year: Muse (again), Mogwai (again), the Bravery, Keane, Bloc Party – and there seems to be tonnes of music festivals going on all the time too. So am keen to check some of them out at a later stage. Oh also! I also want to go to some musicals – especially “We Will Rock You”. Looking forward to some culture!

Oh also, I am now also on Skype for anyone who uses it – just search by my email address, and when I get myself organised, I might actually be able to ring people! Talk soon – Manda :)

London so far

2007-05-01T23:03:00.000+01:00

The flight from London to Dubai (Sat 28th April) was fantastic. I got one of those amazing seats you only dream about when you’ve got crappy economy tickets. It was a window seat. And it had no seats in front of it! I could stretch my legs out as much as I wanted. The night before was a big one – we went out for Greg’s birthday at the Hyatt Dubai overlooking a marina and then later went onto a Shish smoking place on the water (ie, you smoke fruit flavoured stuff through a big long pipe thing). We got home at 3am, I got up at 6am to pack. Hence the good seats on the plane were badly needed – I had several powernaps on the way over.

Steph greeted me at the airport – she seemed to have a hangover equally as bad as mine. Was good to see a familiar face again. We caught the tube from Heathrow to Brixton and filled her in on the whirlwind of events that got me to this point and place in time. I also couldn’t have carried all this stuff by myself as there are many stairs in the tube and I had 4 items of luggage to well - lug. Thanks Steph!

Now no matter how much you read, research, google, fantasize, ask people about a place (I even tried zooming right in on googlemaps), nothing can actually prepare you until you are standing there in person and then it actually becomes reality. I felt like I had landed on another planet. My holiday was over. Reality had resumed. Welcome to Brixton.

As I left the tube station into the main street of Brixton, it was busy with, well, Jamaicans! Coming from a predominantly white population, this was a temporary surprise. I love “people watching” and it’s fascinating watching the people of Brixton. The clothes they wear, the crazy hair braiding, dreads, colours, all the different accents, catching snippets of people’s conversations..

We got back to Steph’s place, and dumped my bags (finally). We headed out and I was given a walking tour of Brixton. We headed over to our new place which we will move into on Tuesday. I can’t *wait* to move in – sleeping on a camper bed with my stuff strewn all over Steph’s floor bedroom floor is ok for a couple of days, but I can’t wait to unpack properly and get myself set up in the new place. It would seem our new place actually has a decent garden. No where as huge as my last backyard, but we do have enough grass to mow! Oh, did I mention everything here is green? The parks are beautiful and huge. And it doesn’t get dark til about 8.30pm. My other observations are - no one wears helmets when cycling, everyone drinks and smokes, there's no such thing as a 100 pound note here (as I disovered when stupidly asking for one at the bank).. oh and www.argos.co.uk is my latest discovery - think cheap and Ikea, but there's nothing on display - just catlogues everywhere, you write down your order and they bring it out from behind closed doors!

Anyway, the only bad thing is, that I’ve had the sniffles as soon as I got here – have to take tissues everywhere with me grr. The weather is nice as it’s heading into Summer here. However, it is still a bit nippy in the morning and evenings. When I go out in the daytime, it’s warm enough still to wear thongs, but still cold enough that I need a jumper or cardy. And if you walk around for a couple of days in your thongs, the bottoms of your feet will go dirty and black (already scrubbed my feet to get rid of it).

The other thing that I’ve rediscovered here is my feet (apart from scrubbing them). In that life with out a car is well interesting and if I want to do absolutely anything or go anywhere, I have to walk. This initially was a mental barrier, but it’s good motivation to get out and discover Brixton (and exercise as well). So today Steph headed off to work and I was left to my own devices. I walked down to my bank and changed my address to the new house. And yes it is a terrace house and because it’s on a corner, we only share one wall with the neighbours. Anyway, after that, I went to an internet café and started applying for jobs. I then went for a walk and found a café that made Chai Lattes – yay! So I relaxed there for a while, and went for another walk through some shops and the markets.

The markets here are fascinating, in that there’s so much fresh fruit, veg, meat and fish – I can’t wait to move into the new place and go to the markets to get fresh food to cook for dinner.. And it’s right around the corner from the tube station as well – so it’s very central. It will take about 5 minutes to walk from our new house to the tube. So after my big morning out, I headed back to Steph’s house when an agency rang me about one of the jobs I’d applied for a few hours previously. Woohoo! They’re forwarding my CV onto the employer – will find out if I get an interview in the next day or so. I then decided it was time for a much deserved powernap…

I headed out again later on to a different internet café – which was crap – my external hard drive wouldn’t connect. Grr. And I had no administrator rights! I’m not going back there. And I can’t find anything that even resembles a computer/electronics store – I want to buy a USB/flash drive. I then headed to the Lounge café/bar which is a cruisy little café and had an early dinner and some fresh juice. One of my favourite songs was playing - You Are My Angel by Massive Attack. And whilst sitting in this café it occurred to me that even though I was miles from home with none of my friends around (as much as I miss them), I was actually content and comfortable sitting there relaxing with my own thoughts. I didn’t feel like some loner / loser sitting by themselves. It actually momentarily felt ok to be by myself. Freaky. There is a flipside to this though - I do like to share my thoughts and get them out of my head – which is why I’m really liking having a blog. Instead of dear diary, it’s hello world!

Anyway, I have found unsecured wireless internet at the new place (yes have moved in now! - see all photos of the new place below, plus photos from last night in Dubai). And thanks Rach and Stu for looking my cat Kiddy - I miss him very much. Enjoy the photos - Manda xox.

A "before I get trashed" photo in Dubai.

Me, very ready to move into the new place..
The new place...

Our garden etc

Me, Steph & Katy in the new place..

The outside of our house!

Update 2 from Dubai - indoor skiing, Moroccan Bath, Diamond Exhibition at the Burj Al Arab Hotel

2007-04-26T08:38:00.000+01:00

Indoor Skiing in Dubai

On Tuesday night, we went to Ski Dubai – the indoor skiing place in the Mall of the Emirates shopping centre (giant shopping centre). I had a one hour Discovery Lesson – I’d never skied before. So we learnt the ropes and practiced on a smaller slope – and I only fell over once on my bum! (Right before that photo was taken.) Lots of fun. Would like to try it again. Went to a bar/restaurant afterwards that overlooks/looks into slopes where I took some of the photos from (see all the photos below / at the end).

Moroccan bath

Oh my GOD. Wednesday, I spent all day at a beauty salon. I had a Moroccan Bath which is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before – it was amazing. You are given a robe and a disposable plastic/cotton g-string are taken into this small room which is like a shower, sauna and steamroom in one. It is dimly lit with candles and has aromatherapy oils burning. The ceiling has a purple frosted covering with a small amount of glowing purple light shining through. There is a shower arm, a small stool, a sill with the oils, candles, lotions etc and a padded waterproof bench to the side. The lady who gives you your Moroccan Bath comes into the room and you’re told to remove your robe and sit on the stool (ie, all you’re wearing is the g-string they give you). You sit there and she showers and washes you. She washes your hair while you’re sitting there. You stand up and you are washed from head to toe (this experience is not for the shy!). She then gets you to lie on the padded bench and you are showered again (more lotions). She leaves you there to relax uncovered for 15 minutes whilst the room fills up with steam. The candles and oils continue to burn and the room becomes so steamy, all you can see staring at the ceiling is a purple haze. After the 15 minutes, she comes back and proceeds with the full body scrub. Head to toe, front, sides, back nothing is left unscrubbed, well obviously except for “downstairs” ;). Now, I’m a clean and hygienic person, but you’d be shocked at the amount of dead skin that comes off. I highly suggest everyone gets a full body scrub! After the extremely vigorous body scrub (it’s like being sanded with an electric sander almost), more lotions and masks are applied and washed off again and again from head to toe. Finally, you get up off the bench and you are showered again and you proceed to another room with a massage table. The lady then gives you a 1 hour full body massage, followed by half hour reflexology massage. Needless to say, I was quite relaxed after all this, and my goodness, my skin has never felt this smooth – so incredibly silky smooth it’s amazing. Anyway, after all this, (I’m not finished!), I had a facial, and a manicure and French pedicure. What a day!

H Stern Diamond Exhibition at the Burj Al Arab Hotel

So after my day of indulgence, it was time to get dressed up and head off to the Burj Al Arab hotel (click on the link to see a picture of it). For those who don’t know – this is the world’s only 7 star hotel that’s built in the shape of a giant sail. This place is super posh – there’s gold everywhere – I’d hate to think how much it is to stay there! Anyway, I’d bought a new purple dress for 44 Dirhams which is about $15 AUD – absolute bargain. So me and my cous got all dressed up and headed off. This was an invitation only event and seemed that the people there were let’s just say posh, famous, loaded or all of the above. There were a tonne of photographers from various UAE magazines there. I had my photo taken at least a dozen times by various photographers – my cousin is going to buy all the magazines next week to see if we’re in them! Anyway, the diamonds and jewelry were stunning. The one piece of jewelry that caught my eye was the GIANT aquamarine ring and they let me try it on (see photos). My cousin also thinks I should be a hand model. So yes, knocked back a few champagnes and we headed off. We went home via some shopping centre food court and ordered a stack of food to takeaway. So far I’ve tried Iranian food, Lebanese food, and to be honest – it all tastes the same and very similar to Turkish food - and I love it all! Basically lots of fresh chopped veges / salads, tabouli, hummus, falafel, tzatziki, thin breads, shish kebabs, fresh herbs, vine leaves etc etc – it’s all very yum (and actually good for you). So we set ourselves up with a big spread of food on the coffee table at home and feasted away and had a giggle watching ParentHood on tv.

Anyway, I fly out on Saturday morning – so I’ve really only 2 more days here. I’m going to register with a few IT recruiters and agencies online. My next entry will hopefully be from London. Enjoy all the photos below! Manda xox

Me skiing!
All rugged up

Argh! Wooly mammath!

Getting ready for the Diamond Exhibition.

Me and Kerri all ready to go!
Me wearing a giant aquamarine ring from the display.

Close up of the ring!

Oh - more bounty from a previous shopping trip..

Sunset in Dubai taken from the roof of my cousin's house.

My first few days in Dubai so far

2007-04-23T07:33:00.000+01:00

Ok, I have left! I'm on holidays! Yay! I flew out on Friday night (20 April) at 8pm. The flight to Dubai was crap. I didn't sleep, I was squished in between 2 people. Anyway, I arrived in Dubai on Saturday at 6am. If ever you come here, make sure you get the Marhaba Service. Basically when I got off the plane, there was a lady in a bright yellow suit holding up a sign with my name on it (makes you feel like a celebrity / get the royal treatment). She escorted me through to customs where there were the most giant queues I had seen in my life (I would've had to wait hours to get through). Luckily the lady takes you straight to the front, you don't wait and get processed straight away. After that - there's a golf buggy waiting for us, and we zoom through the airport to collect my luggage. And then my cousin picked me up outside! Thank god for the Marhaba Service. Anyway, got back to my cousin's house which is really really nice. Had a giant long hot shower and boy - that night (Saturday night), I slept sooo well - I hadn't actually slept/been to bed since Thursday night in Australia.. Have to keep reminding myself where I am - the local women where all black, the men where white dresses and perve shamelessly on western women - but you get over it / used to it.

Anyhoo, have been taking it pretty easy so far. Have been shopping a couple of times for bags, sunnies etc etc. Bought a nice pair of Gucci sunglasses. And there's more shopping to come - I'll be going to the Mall of the Emirates which is apparently the biggest shopping centre in the Middle East, and get this - it has an indoor amusement park AND and indoor skiing place!!! I'm going for lessons and then I'll be going skiing later in the week - woohoo! So yesterday, Sunday - we went to the beach. I have to admit, the beaches at home are nicer - but I do like going to the beach. The beaches here are covered with garbage / litter that's either washed up or the locals just leave behind - it's terrible. The water however was lovely... Anyway, here's some photos so far - there will be lots more exciting ones to come when I go skiing etc. Enjoy!

Me at the beach..

Mars Bar icecream! They don't make these anymore in Oz - was very excited / happy to eat one of these again :)

A mosque..

Some pretty shells at the beach..

Crabs eating a washed up jellyfish.

My cousin Kerri and her husband Greg and the dogs..

Me at the beach!

Lots of pretty shells at the beach..

Me on my cousin's couch..

My favourite past time - sleeping

Kerri's puddy tat..

My cousin Kerri :)

Last day at work and drinks at the Brekky Creek

2007-04-07T03:02:00.000+01:00

Thursday 5th of April was my last day at work. My boss had been sending me home early or "sick" a lot - and I wasn't going to complain or argue! Turns out they were filming a going away DVD for me! When I saw it - it was hilarious! Whenever anything goes wrong at work - we all sing "it wasn't me" (the Shaggy song). So the whole DVD was a music clip done to this song with people from out IT department singing along and breaking things. Thanks to everyone who contributed. I loved it. Anyway, here's some of the photos from our afternoon/evening at the Brekky Creek. I actually meant to take more photos but kind of.. forgot. We all ended up coming back to my house for a bit of an impromptu party. It all gets hazy after that.. So thanks to everyone who came along: Elissa, Susan, Ross, Andrew M, Duane, Lara, Brett, Jim, Glenn, Nicole, Brian, Sandra, Sean, Taryn, Andrew P, Matthew C, Nathan, Kelly & Sandra. I think that covers it. Phew. Enjoy the photos.

Me!

Amanda & Andrew

Elissa

Ross & Sean

Elissa & Amanda

Amanda & Ross

Brett & Glen

Brian & Nicole

Sean & Sandra

Amanda's itinerary for April 2007: Brisbane to Dubai to London

2007-02-07T22:42:00.000Z

EMIRATES AIRLINES: FLIGHT EK 433 (BRISBANE TO DUBAI)

DEPART FRIDAY 20 APR 2007 BRISBANE/BRISBANE INTL 2005 (08.05pm) ONE STOP Terminal: TERMINAL INTERNATIONAL
ARRIVE SATURDAY 21 APR 2007 DUBAI/DUBAI INTL ARPT 0600 (06.00am) 15HRS 55MINS Terminal: TERMINAL 1

EMIRATES AIRLINES: FLIGHT EK29 (DUBAI TO LONDON)

DEPART SATURDAY 28 APR 2007 DUBAI/DUBAI INTL ARPT 0950 (09.50am) NON-STOP Terminal: TERMINAL 1
ARRIVE SATURDAY 28 APR 2007 LONDON/HEATHROW, GB 1415 (02.15pm) 07HRS 25MINS Terminal: TERMINAL 3