Looking back

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.

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

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

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...

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 :)

Settling into London and TOOL is coming to Brixton!

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

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

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.