Living in the ghetto - an update from London

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

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!

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

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

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.