Thursday, March 29, 2007

Thanks!

Thanks to those of you who replied to my massive whinge of an email about my house situation! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks he is crazy - but never mind that! Tonight I have the house to MYSELF and the heater is on high (I know it's not really that cold in London at the moment but I'm feeling not so good and have got the chills!) Hope we don't get a £300 gas bill ;)

Speaking of chills, it really is bad timing as I'm going to Egypt on Friday. Now is not the best time for me to get sick. I bought myself some cold and flu tablets and they have taken the cotton wool out of my head but not the sniffles and sneezes.

I went to a really lovely school today - only downside was it took me two hours to get there (the district line is a painful in the mornings!!!) and they asked me to go back tomorrow - stupidly, I said yes!

Funny thing though - I was waiting outside to pick up my kids as the bell rang when this little boy ran out of the toilets and up to the teacher I was speaking with. He looked up at her with teary eyes and his small hands holding up his unbuttoned jeans and said 'but miss, I haven't finished wiping my bum yet'... she just looked at him in shock and said 'well thats ok, go back and finish then'. The poor little boy ran back to the toilets, hands still holding up his jeans!! Made me laugh so hard.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

It's a small, small world!



Last night, I went to a party hosted by one of the agencies I work for - Sanza. It was a great night because we had free beer and wine as well as loads of nibbles!

I was standing around a table, chatting to this girl who I'd met that night and I looked over towards the bar and I saw this guy who I swore looked like Anthony.
I decided that there was no way it could be Anthony so I went on my merry way, continuing to drink my cheap, nasty wine!

Anyways, turns out it WAS Anthony! How bizarre is that? Come all the way to London to bump into someone who is a mutual friend. So, we had a few more drinks and ended up heading out to a club after the Sanza party finished. An awesome night with way too much wine! I love it!

How bizarre!


I woke up in the morning with a massive hangover and had to meet Kelly - so we canceled our walking trip of London and went to Bella Italia for a massive English breakfast of sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, mushroom and fried tomato with toast. YUM! The best way to start off the day.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Tube Etiquette

This post is dedicated to my #1 best friend in the whole wide world - Belinda!

Read this very carefully as you will need to follow these rules whilst using the tube in London. Failure to comply with these rules will result in very angry glares (and possibly obscene profanities muttered underneath their breath) from impatient Londoner's!

Rule #1: Stay on the right when using the escalators except if you are planning to walk. If you want to walk up or down the escalators then you must walk on the left side. Failure to comply with this rule may result in you being pushed down the escalators by rude, impatient people.

Rule #2: Once on the tube you must not look at anyone in the eye. If you do happen to catch someones eye, glance away quickly and don't look back in that direction for the remainder of the trip!

Rule #3: Don't talk to anyone on the tube.

Rule #4: If you see someone collapse at the station, don't bother helping them up - just do what everyone else does and walk right over the top of them. Yes, this does happen!

Rule #5: If you have just gotten down to the platform and there is a train just about to leave (the doors are starting to close) don't wait 2 minutes for the next train! Instead, you should try and cram your body (plus briefcase) into THIS train!


Rule #6: Obey the signs on the platform that tell you not to play your iPod too loud because if you don't follow this rule, the next 3 weeks of the Metro (free London newspaper available at tube stations) will have people moaning about how annoying it is to hear people playing their music too loud!

Rule #7: Don't give the beggars on the train any money!

Overall, the tube is a fun experience and it is pretty reliable - actually, I did read a quote about the tube once that was something along the lines of this - the tube is reliable and efficient until you need to rely on the tube to get you somewhere on time - how true!

But take note of these rules and if you have any more 'rules' for using the tube then please let me know :)

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Two Worlds

I completely and utterly love London! It's the most amazing experience in the world and I've only been here 6 weeks but I have learnt SO much about so many things.

I have found that I am extremely patriotic and will boast about Australia to anyone who is willing to listen. I bought Vegemite at a UK supermarket just so I could have a little piece of home with me and seeing or hearing about Australia makes me remember just how much I love home.

While I would never come home from London before my time here is done, I am reminded of all the things I love about Australia that I took for granted...

I took my friendships for granted and if I had the chance I would have made more of an effort with my friends (so you can look forward to that when I get back home!) Even just hearing about Pugg Mahones or Bridie O'Reily's makes me sad because I remember how much fun I had at those places!

But, I am making up for lost time in London but I am doing it with people who are my London friends and I really want my friends back home to know that I care about each and every one of you and I'm sorry if I did take our friendship for granted! It may have taken me moving to a different country to realise this but better late than never!

Monday, March 19, 2007

St Patrick's Day

Last night was St Patrick's day and Kelly and I decided to go out and celebrate in style. She came bearing gifts and gave me an awesome green headband which had bells on the top that were attached to springs so they jingled whenever we moved our head! Awesome fun! I wore a cute green dress and the headband Kelly bought matched my dress exactly - fantastic co-ordination!




We had agreed to meet at 7.15pm in Leicester Square - but as always I was running late - but it wasn't just me, the tube was crowded and it keep stopping every two minutes - anyways, so we went to this great Italian chain called Bella Italia which serves reasonably priced Italian food. We got a pizza to share with a bottle of Rose and then decided to find an Irish pub to complete our night...

We decided to head back to this pub we'd briefly been inside before called Waxy O'Connors - a great pub with several levels and themed rooms - there is a tree room which has a tree (fake of course) coming out of the wall which you can sit under, as well as various other rooms but the line was so long and we were cold so we decided to try and find somewhere else. We were walking back through Leicester Square when we bumped into this guy handing out free passes to this 'sport / dance / bar' across the road. I saw the words 'free' and 'dance' so Kelly and I decided we'd check this place out.

It was called Sirroco and oh my goodness - it was awesome! The drinks were quite reasonably priced for the location, although one of the bar staff didn't know how to serve Jager bombs (yes B, I had my first JagerBomb!!!) as she tried to put the red bull into a tiny glass - WITH ICE - and then she tried to put the shot of Jager in the glass with the red bull so I was standing there at the bar directing this chick as to how she should serve us our drink!





Even though we didn't end up at an Irish pub, Kelly and I had the best time at this place. We managed to get ourselves a comfy couch upstairs and occasionally went downstairs to dance. So sleazy though, the guys were coming onto us thick and hard. Seriously, you had one guy with his hand on your butt and another guy was trying to pull you away from that guy and pash you - when it was clear another guy was trying to chat you up. It was definitely a fun night though and Kelly and I want to go back because the music was awesome to dance to and it is central for both of us!


Sunday, March 11, 2007

Question: How many English men does it take to change a tyre?

Answer:

2 police cars
2 mechanics
1 bus driver
1 tour guide
30 tourists
and many passing cars on the motorway!

You're probably wondering what on earth I'm going on about - well, give me a minute and I'll explain! I went to Stonehenge and Salisbury today - absolutely wonderful, check out the photos below! Salisbury was a quaint little English town with an awesome cobblestoned pavement as their High Street - really pretty. There was also a river you could walk along and the river and it was just beautiful. There were old English houses which I took numerous photos of but the photos don't do this place justice. We had the sunniest day which made it even nicer and Laurine and I ate our lunch on a bench beside the river.

It was so nice to get out of London for the day and get some fresh air which didn't turn your snot black. We heard birds sing, we had a look down the High Street, we visited the Salisbury Cathedral (also see photos) and all in all it was a fabulous day.

Of course, in typical London style, things did not go entirely to plan on the drive home. We were driving along and all was fine for about an hour. People were dozing off to sleep or listening to iPods when all of a sudden we heard a *pOp* sound and as the bus veered to the side of the road, we realised that something was not quite right. Turns out that one of the tyres got a puncture which led to us being road-bound for the next hour and a half while we were waiting for the mechanic to come to replace the tyre! Typically, the mechanic took forever to arrive and change the tyre and while we were waiting, the police rocked up so that they could section off one of the lanes on the motorway so that the person changing the tyre would be safe, as the punctured tyre was on the road side. Anyways, this delay occured at 5.30pm and we didn't end up leaving the area until around 7.30. We did get space blankets which were big silver things that we were able to use to keep warm. Laurine took photos so I have to wait until she emails them to me and then I will be able to show you!

So, it was a great day with a bit of an adventure and I had a lot of fun!


Saturday, March 10, 2007

Living it up

Things have been going so well for me in London. Obviously, I have my bad days but that happens anywhere but for the most part, London is fantastic and I am so happy that I had the courage to come. There was a small part of me that never really believed that I would make it here but I did. And I am loving it!

It has been so easy, I haven't encountered any difficult situations yet (except for difficult decisions such as - shall I have another glass of wine or will that make me too intoxicated to walk down those stairs later). It seems like everything is going my way - for example - today I decided I had better buy a new pair of shoes as my boots that were pretty much new upon leaving Australia are now falling apart - literally. Anyway, a friend told me about Primark which is meant to be this really cheap store (think Best & Less - Hi Lauren!!) So I decided to go and find this store *because I am on a massive budget* and buy a pair of shoes. I found Primark in Hammersmith which is kind of close to where I live and found a nice pair of shoes for £6 - awesomely cheap since the shoes in Marks and Spencer are around £25!! I tried a pair on in the colour I wanted but they were too big and the other sizes too small, the size I wanted wasn't there and the other colours didn't match my pants *OOPS sorry - TROUSERS!!!*. Anyways as I was just about to give up and go find shoes elsewhere, a Primark employee suddenly drops a pair of my magical brown shoes in a size 39 right in front of my feet - I swooped them up before someone else decided to grab them *it was almost as bad as trying to fight for a seat on the tube during peak times*. I was thrilled because they were the perfect shoes and SO cheap. So there you have it, my long-winded story about how London is going so perfectly at the moment.

Of course, not everything has gone perfectly, like the time Protocol stuffed up my pay but you would all be so proud of me for handling things so maturely. I feel like I have already started to change and I really can't imagine coming home to Melbourne because I don't know how I would go back to such a slower pace of life! Though I am sure London will wear me out soon enough.

Random notes:

On Saturday, Laurine and Yolandie and I are going to Stonehenge and Salisbury for a day trip. I am so excited because these are places I have dreamt about going to ever since I knew I was going to London and now I am actually doing it. Laurine also mentioned she wants to go to either Leeds Castle next week, or Stratford-upon-Avon so I shall definately be joining her on that day trip too.

Sarah - one of my flat mates - gave me a piece of really good advice last night. She told me that whatever invitation I get, I should accept it even if I can't be bothered because she says she regrets that she declined invitations to do things and now she wants to do those things but finds it hard to get people to go with her. So, I have been doing pretty much anything thats been thrown at me.

Anyways it is time for me to go and post my time sheets for this week otherwise I won't get paid and that is not good!!