My cat Kiddy has found someone to look after him

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...

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

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

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!!