Christina in London

long-time-coming-blog

2007-09-18T22:40:00.000+01:00

It would seem that since discovering facebook my poor blog has been suffering neglect. So here is a catch up blog...

Shanti from uni and work visited in March. This is us with St Pauls and the Thames

Snowboarding in France, March 2006
Alison from work visited in March (this is at picadilly circus)Simeon from uni visited in March (I didn't realise how many visitors I had that month!). This is at the blue man group
April marked my fourth visit to see Wicked with Pippa!
Beth arrived in May, and this is us in Capri
My first Eurovision party... me and Alix (my new flat mate) unimpressed with the bloc voting arragements
Me and Louise in Lisbon in May
Fran (uni) and me in Notting Hill in June
David, Kylie and me at a restaurant in High St Kensington in June (Joanna Lumly was also in the restaurant!)
Deev and me in Paris at the end of June
Rach and Schelle at the one man star wars show in July (do you like their SUMMER clothes??)
Ali (my old flat mate) and me at the Justin Timberlake concert in July
Farewell Ali! Greg, me and Ali
Iceland in July with Franko and Steph
Buying Harry Potter at Sainsburys at midnight, me and Elise
Pam visits in July
Holiday time... Ireland tour

Still holiday time... Rome

I hope you liked my catch up block... not a lot of writing I realise, so I hope you have a good internet connection!

Amsterdam

2007-04-24T22:56:00.000+01:00

OK... I went to Amsterdam ... um like October 2006. The reason it has taken so long to get a post up is because although I took my camera charger with me.... I forgot my camera! How funny!

So these are photos from Schelle's camera!
Here are a couple of photos showing very common amsterdam things... special metal guards intended to prevent drunk men from peeing in the street and also a bike. Both of these things are everywhere!

Here is another one
Apparently these buildings lean foward a bit and there is a hook at the top on the front. This means they can drag things up to the top, without banging into the windows and breaking them!
Schelle and me at our hostel! It was a boat... I have never had a tinier room, but it was super cute!
Schelle on the boat

The bright red buildin is (apparently) the narrowest building in amsterdam

Bulbs absolutely everywhere

There were beautiful flowers pretty much everywhere!

Lisbon... take 2!

2007-04-03T19:32:00.000+01:00

I had the pleasure of visiting Matt and Louise in Lisbon again this year in February and enjoy somewhat warmer weather than I was used to in London.

Louise and I enjoying Crunchies and Berocca, some special things you can't get in LisbonAll the ground in Lisbon looks like this...Louise took me to Sintra... beautiful town not far from Lisbon (hope i remembered the name correctly)!
Lisbon is full of tiles...
This costs about EUR2.... unbeliveable! In portugese, a portugese tart is called a Pastel de nata.. which i think translates to cream tart

More tiles....

The castle in Sintra... a fusion of different looks

Barnacles!!! This was like our appetizer

Port in Portugal... me and Matt.... this is a famous port place in Lisbon...

I'm actually heading back to Lisbon in about 6 weeks (take three) to visit Matt and Louise for one last time as they are heading back home for a few months! I'm practically a local now!

More visitors and a celebrity!

2007-03-24T22:53:00.000Z

Time for another visitors to London post!

But before I get to that, exciting news is that I spotted my first celebrity. I had lunch last Sunday in Marylebone with Regina and we saw Kira Knightly! Which is a better than when I saw Justin from the Darkness in my local Pizza Express... I didn't actually recognise him, but the friends I was with pointed him out.

OK... enough celebs... visitors....

So Dave arrived in September 2006... here we are with Big Ben in the back ground...Kate, how is Dave' flatmate in Sydney, visited not long after Dave. Kate is in the pink, and we saw Wicked (my second time) with Deev, Schelle and some of their friends that were staying with them
I got to see Bronnie and Dave for one last time before they headed back home.
Dave (Bronnie's husband) and I in the kitchen doing tim tam slams
David (from work in Sydney) and me in Canary Wharf
Shanti (yep, I do get visitors who are not called Dave or David, but apparently not many!). I had a day off work with Shanti, and we got to explore London together, including the slides at the Tate Modern!
And here I am coming off the slide at the Tate Modern.... they are finishing up in a couple of weeks so am so pleased managed to get around to doing it! And big thanks to Shanti for patiently wating for me to take the photo!
I have some more vistors pending arrivals in the next few weeks too! Alison, from work in Sydney, Simeon from uni and Beth arrives in about 3 weeks to live in London for a while!

New York, New York

2007-03-06T22:33:00.000Z

My trip to NY in December last year (now only about 3 months ago) was very different to my other trips there. Why? Using GBP rather than AUD, makes such a difference. I was in NY for about a week with Priscilla and her boyfriend Ernie (though they were there for about 4 days). We stayed near Union Square, and they day Ernie and Priscilla left, there was a stabbing at the markets in the afternoon, though i had safely moved myself to around 30th street.

It was exceptionally cold, but didn't rain. Pretty much what we did in NY was shop with our pounds, and I still cannot believe how cheap Benefit makeup was in NY!!!

Priscilla and I with the Empire State Building

I was really keen to see NY at Christmas, which is why I decided to go in December. The last time I was there is was summer, and amazingly hot. I can't believe the difference!

The streets were full of real Christmas decorations!

Crowds going into Macy's

Priscilla and me at the Rockefeller Centre's Christmas tree

Priscilla and me on top of the Rockerfeller Centre, with the Empire State building in the background. BTW, I recommend going up the Empire state building compared to the Rockerfeller Centre

We had dinner one night in Little Italy, but it has pretty much been taken over by Chinatown. We really struggled to find an Italian restaurant, as Billy Joel sings about...

But managed

Times Square and the Reese's shop

Priscilla and her Russian coat and NY hat in Time Square

The next goup of photos is all about a place I visited in NY more than any other. The toilet paper brand Charmin, had a special promotion in Times Square providing about 20 luxury toilets. So before you went in someone cleaned the bathroom for you and everything. Plus, because there were so many, you never had to wait too long.

PLUS! It was a total experience! There was a song played over and over again (I really felt for the people working there) plus a dance that went along with the song - that naturally Priscilla and I were happy to go along with.

Doing the dance!

Pricilla and me, and The Charmin bear

Doing the dance on the escalators!

The three of us also managed to catch a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. It was so boring! In 2005, Mel and I saw the women's basket ball in MSG, the NY Liberty. It was so exciting that we went again on that trip! Plus it was very inexpensive. The men though.... gee they disappointed. As we can see from this picture of Priscilla, thoroughly enthralled....

I actually fell asleep too, but no photo (quelle dommage!)
Priscilla, prior to her nap

Me and Ernie at MSG

Skating in Central Park
American breakfasts... value for money?!?
At the Guggenhiem... though we didn't go in.... will have to make a special effort next time, although, all I really wanted to see was the inside of the building Will Smith runs up chasing the alien at the begining of Men in Black (first one), and you can see that without paying the USD15 entry fee, so....

OK... so the musical Wicked, is kind of a slight obsession with me at the moment. Just to briefly explain the musical is sort of a prequel to the Wizard of Oz and talks about the relationship between Elphaba (wicked witch of the west) and Glinda (good witch of the north). Briefly, Elphaba isn't actually all that wicked, and Glinda turns out to not be all that good.

I saw it for the first time in London with Mel just after it opened, and I have the CD (and know most of the words by hear) and have read the book. So, I was keen to see the NY production. Did slightly disappoint, Elphaba was the understudy's understudy, plus I had already seen it twice in London where with the original actress, who is amazing. (Remember I said I am slightly obsessed? I'm seeing it for the 4th time in April!)

Coming home from the theatre on the subway

We really did a lot of shopping. Thankfully after Priscilla and Ernie left I was totally shopped out

After P and E left, I managed to see 3 more plays musicals (turns out this is one thing that is really expensive in NY). I saw High Fidelity, a new musical based on the movie/book, which I really enjoyed and thought the lyrics were pretty funny, however, having checked on the internet, not many other people agreed and it closed about a month after it opened.

I also saw A Chorus Line, which was good, but long as there was no intermission. The set was just the stage with mirrors at the back that twisted around.

The last one I saw was called Grey Gardens, which was a musical about Jacqui Onasis's aunt and cousin who were part of high society before the war, but ended up destitute and with a house full of cats by the 1970s. I got the impression the story was quite infamous in America, but it was all new to me!

I also saw a NY Rangers game against Pittsburg Penguins, bizzarely, the last time I saw the NYR they were playing Pittsburg. This was pretty good, but the game I saw in Montreal was so much better, the atmosphere in Montreal was increadible in comparison.

The Christmas Tree from Quebec in Bryant park

I did some exploring around the East Village and the West Village (also know as Greenwich Village, where friends is set). I took this photo in Washington Square Park (which you often see in Friends) and yep... that is a purpose built dog pram... amazing!

View from the west side of Manhattan, I believe that makes it New Jersey!

To ensure I meet my food photo quota, here is my hotdog, before I visited the Museum of natural history.

And here is like the ONLY thing in the museum in relation to Australia. I can't believe this kookaburra sums up my home country in the museum (and yes, after I went to the museum, I saw the Ben Stiller movie)

"But between you and me and the Staten Island ferry...." (Just in case you don't recognise the line, it is from a Billy Joel song). YEP... finally got to catch the orange FREE staten island ferry. This is lower Manhattan from the ferry.

Also taken from the ferry

The M&M shop opened in Times Square while I was there too. The Hershey's shop across the road is so much better though!

The Imagine Mosaic in Central Park which is across the road from John Lennon's appartment. It was actually the anniversary of his death while I was there (though this was not the day).

I would love to go back to NY this year, BUT... my big news is that I have booked my ticket home for Christmas!!!! In which case, given this has cost a small fortune, I think I will have to wait for next year to return to NY!

SNOW

2007-01-24T23:23:00.000Z

YAY... I woke up this morning to a blanket of white over London. It was very lovely!!! That was until I made it to the tube station and there were "severe delays"... but I still loved waking up to snow! I took some photos so will put them up later.

Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est la neige!

Quebec

2007-01-20T00:11:00.000Z

Quand je suis arrive a Montreal, la premiere chose qu'on a fait.... on a mange LA POUTINE, bien sur! J'ai dit qu'il fait 5 ans depuis j'ai mange la poutine. Mes Julie, Chantal et Katie m'ont corrigee... juste un an a passe parce les filles nous ont fait la poutine a Boston l'annee passee.

OK I do believe that will be enough French for the moment. Yep... the first thing I did once I arrived in Montreal after my 10 hour train journey from NY was to eat LA POUTINE at St Hubert. Just a heads up, when you say LA POUTINE, you say it in a sing-song voice.

True to form, I was met by a gang in Montreal which was great! Katie, Julie and Chantal. Merci beaucoup encore pour fait le conduire! Je vous remercie!!!!

BTW if you ever have the choice of the train from NY to Montreal compared to the Greyhound bus... go for the train everytime, it may take a couple more hours, but it so much more pleasant. The train goes along the river and it is stunning. Hoping to go back in Autumn this year to check it out again.

Julie and me with our POUTINE

Chantal and Katie with POUTINE... OK Katie has a salade... but she could have POUTINE when ever she wantsJudith, Katie's daughter , me and Harrods, the bear I gave to Judith. Judith is doing painting by numbers, just in case you can't tell Me, Judith and Katie
Chantal, Katie, Judith, me and Julie chez Katie
Judith et son lapin

Julie is in the unusual situation of having 3 homes! Her boyfriend, Stephan, and her live in Sherbrooke, really close to the university where Stephan is doing his Phd. Julie though works in Victoriaville at a primary school teaching year 3 which is about 1 hour and a bit from Sherbrooke. So she has managed to score a room effectively next door to the school. The other home at her parents.

At her home in Victo, I tried to take a shower, which is generally considered not too difficult. However I couldn't seem to get any hot water.

The problem then was I couldn't actually turn off the tap. So after a some what long interval, Julie came back and was immediately able to turn it off (turns out I was trying to turn off the wrong tap, which was loose, which is why i couldn't get any hot water)

So, Stephan is doing a Phd in something to do with lasers going through different materials and the by products of doing that, at least that's what i have remembered.

This is Julie and me with the "laser" at the university

Stephan and Julie

Julie and Stephan at Sherbrooke with la coupe Stanley, OK it is a model. The last time montreal won was around 1992 I think... early 90s anywayLa neige
I spent one day with Julie in her third grade class which was really fun!!! She is a great teacher too. We did some grammer which meant I got to write sentences on the board which the kids had to correct, then we identified the nouns and verbs.

Maths was next.... this was all about measuring. So I got to help out a bit and explain to some of the kids how to draw lines greater than or less than or in between certain lengths! Tout en francais.

At the end of the day we had our Party de l'Australie. So we played Australian animal hang man. I also got lots of questions about Australia and in particular kangaroos. Julie had to explain to the class that I wasn't a vet, so I couldn't answer all their questions.

I also taught her class to sing "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree". I have a video of it, but I don't think I can load it onto my blog... it is great though!

I was able to have dinner at Julie's third place, being her parents place one night too. Plus even her brothers came to dinner, and Karine! Karine is a friend from school and also happens to be Julie's cousin.

Julie's parents gave me the required can of maple syrup, we checked to find one with the best recipe on the top. You'd be amazed at what you can do with maple syrup.

I spent alot of time at Julie's parents' place when I was on exchange, so it was absolutely fantastic to be able to see them, and have dinner with them which involves me hearing about 5 conversations in French at once.

Since I was last there in 2002, they have one more horse, and a lovely stable to keep the three or four (can't remember) horses.

Odette, me, Julie, Karine, Gaston, Michael and Jimmy

Can you see the glass doors? When I looked out them in the morning all you can see is snow and a few horses and a stable.

A big highlight for my Quebec visit was going to the Centre Molson (which is now called Le Centre Bell, and hasn't been the Molson Centre for years) to see Les Canadiens de Montreal play agains Boston Bruins. One of the rookies from 1996-1997 season, Saku Koivu, is now the captain.... how times change.

Interestingly, hockey is so huge in Canada that we had to pay almost double the face price for our tickets, as they are just so not available. But it was totally worth it!!!! Plus we won! The atmosphere at the Bell Centre was so much better than Madison Square Garden and the Rangers!

Plus they even had this thing at the begining which was a take off of 24. That is 24 hours in the life of the Montreal Canadians. They even had Kieffer Sutherland speaking French at the end talking about how they are going to win their 24 Stanley Cup this year which was quite cool.

My last day was spent in Montreal with Julie and Katie, doing some shopping at Roots and ice skating

Luxembourg

2007-01-17T21:34:00.000Z

OK... so this will be a short one. I had my first trip for work to Luxembourg.

Obviously, won't go into details of the actual time in Luxembourg which was spent in a taxi from the airport, to the office, out for lunch (big fan of that!) back to the office, then back in the taxi to the airport.

You take a prop plane there, so you felt all the turbulance. BUT on the way over, as we walked to the departure gate, we noticed a handcuffed guy which was a bit strange. I thought it must have been some guy going for a run through the security or something.

However, once everyone was on the plane, we were then joined by Mr handcuff man and his minders. Slightly stressful, especially when his requests to have the handcuffs off were justified by him with the assurance "I'm not going to kill anyone".

Unsurprisingly, the handcuffs stayed on and we made it there safely and home safely.

NOW, I have the full set of the 5 London airports.... Heathrow, Luton, Gatwick, Stansted and London City!

New years!

2007-01-01T18:32:00.000Z

The last weekend in 2006! Christmas and new years fell on very convenient days this year!

Schelle and I spent Saturday at my gym in Canary Wharf... got to do a class together which was fun, with a very enthusistic instructor... and then it was off to Borough markets for one last 2006 visit to buy some earl grey tea. But the tea people weren't there.

So we bought coffee from the only place in London that I am happy to buy coffee from and a chocolate brownie (well we had just been to the gym!)

Schelle and I with our coffees standing near the leaky cauldron from Harry Potter

I spent new years in London with Pippa and Matt from church and a friend of theirs, Abbey, from Hull (which is in the north of England). It was inevitably packed. Alot of the roads were closed, so we made the most of walking on the roads. There were waves of people heading down the Strand, and we always seemed to be trying to go against the tide.

Abbey, Pippa and me in Piccadilly Circus on new years eve

Pippa and Matt at the restuarant

We managed to see part of the top of the London eye where the fireworks were, between some buildings from the Strand. There were sooooo many people, so many more than in Sydney. But I think Sydney has a lot more places on to watch the fire works from. The space in London is rather limited unsurprisingly.

Matt, me and Pippa from our vantage point!

We didn't have too many problems going home. We just walked to Bond Street station, along Oxford Street. Although when we got to Swiss Cottage station, the train jerked to a stop and the doors weren't opening. We were in the front carriage, and the carriage behind us was shaking (or as Matt put it "looked as though people were fidgeting"). Finally they make an announcement that the emergency break has been pulled in one of the carriages... so the tube workers were strolling up and down the platform trying to find the carriage.

Then people from the fidgiting carriage started banging on the door to get into our carriage, so the door was opened and all these hysterical women (about 10) ran into our carriage and started banging on the door to the train drivers compartment. Ofcourse we started to get rather worried and we had eached come up with a detailed scenario of what had happened and how we were going to perish on the tube.

It turned out it was a couple of drunk guys who were fighting on their carriage, and some of the women got really upset with their kids so started to panic and were desparate to get off the tube.

The most uncomforting part of the whole thing was that even though we were only a metre short of being in the station completely, they could not open the doors of the train. It had to be done manually!

Happy 2007 everyone!!!!

My London Christmas!

2006-12-26T22:14:00.000Z

Christmas started for me as soon as I got off the plane from NY (yep... blog for that will happen soon hopefully). On Sunday 17 December, we had a mince pie and mulled wine party at my place!

So for the first time ever, I got to make mulled wine, with plenty of help from Alix and Michelle as you can see below.

We got to eat super delicious mince pies from Konditor and Cook... highly recommended! We had some left over, so for the rest of the week, Ali, Greg and I were eating mince pies as we got home from work. They were sooooo good.

For those who don't know what a mince pie is, it is not a mince meat pie. It is rather like a small fruit pie (i.e. the fruit is minced together i suppose??)

The Tuesday night before Christmas we had our work Christmas party in Canary Warf. We had lamb for the main which was pretty good (though they were cooking for over 1000 people I think)
Work gave us half a day off on the Friday before Christmas, so I also took the other half as annual leave and therefore had a massive five days off in a row!!!

So Friday was spent at Sainsbury's doing lots of food shopping... then dragging my granny trolley back to the flat and up the three flights of stairs (yep, no dad to give me a lift over here)

The Saturday before Christmas I spent with Brenda and Jean, a couple of ladies from my church, at Royal Albert Hall singing carols and listening to the choir and orchestra, so I was now totally in the Christmas mood.

Sunday I went to a family carols service in the afternoon at church with more carols (and I tell you they sing ones over here I've never heard!), then Michelle and Elisa (Michelle's friend from Sydney who is travelling at the moment) arrived and we went to the midnight service at St Lukes.

This is Schelle and I on Christmas eve...

This is the makeshift emergency Christmas tree I put together on Christmas eve... Present time... Schelle with a book that will explain why the sale assistants in the shops never offer to help (It's called Watching the English)
Elisa, me and Schelle with our presents... I got lots of socks!

Cooking time... Schelle making bread
Getting the roast ready

The roast is done... we even made our own stuffing!

We had an excellent Christmas... clearly ate alot and watched We Can be Heros all the way through... Physics really is Phun DONKEY!!

Lisbon

2006-12-22T00:35:00.000Z

It is finally almost Christmas!!! One of the benefits of Christmas is I have a few days away from work in a row (5 to be exact). Also, the UK has no forced annual leave between Christmas and new year... very convenient when it is minus two outside!

So I'm catching up on my blog entries... I visited Lisbon at the begining of November for a few days to see Matt and Louise, friends from Sydney who are living in Lisbon now.

It was such a lovely, precious experience to be met at the airport!! Thanks Louise! It is (obviously not something that happens much to me anymore).

Matt and Louise welcomed me into their lives for the few days I was in Lisbon. What I was so amazed by was how well they speak Portugese!

I visited the theological college in Lisbon where they are working on the first night, helped out a bit in the office with Louise and then got to hear a sermon in Portugese which Louise translated for me. The first night we had dinner at the home of some of their Brazilian friends... lots of meat and rice.

I also managed to eat lots of Portugese tarts (custard type tarts), although, perhaps unsurprisingly, they don't call them Portuguese tarts.

Here is Louise and I with the bridge to Spain in the back ground (I may have made that up about the bridge)

The larges Christmas tree in Europe... apparently? Under construction

Matt and I at the Columbus monument in Belem

THE place to eat Portugese tarts... they were warm!!!

Lisbon had the wold expo in 1998. Matt and Louise live near this area in Lisbon (it is quite a new area near the water). It turns out that they decided not to include the Australian flag in the row of flags (there were some countries I had never heard of). This was to do with Australia's position in relation to East Timor at the time

Me and Louise....

Doing this blog and loooking at the photos again.... HOw amazing was the weather while I was there!

Speaking of weather, to put it nicely, things are atmospheric at the moment in London. By that I mean it is totally foggy.... I kind of like it.... I suspect because I haven't really experienced such atmospheric weather before.

However, it has meant alot of flights are being cancelled... not such a great thing to happen 3 days before Christmas!

Guy Fawkes

2006-11-20T22:38:00.000Z

WOW two posts in two days... unbelievable.

OK... Guy Fawkes... so he was the guy who tried to blow up parliament, many years ago... not sure on the timing (and can't be bothered to google at the moment). In anycase, he is always shown wearing ye olde clothes, so it is not a recent thing.

Any way, the gun powder plot was foiled, hence you can still visit the Parliament building.

There is a place near West Hampstead called Hampstead Heath (not a coincidence). There is a hill in Hampstead Heath, called Parliament Hill. Apparently, Guy's friends went there to watch the spectacle... you can no longer see the Parliament from Parliament Hill (yep... pollution).

Here is Ali and me at Clapham Common ready for the fire works

After the fireworks in Clapham Common, Franko, Schelle and I decided it was food time. I got it in my head that it would be a great idea to go to the Gormet Burger Kitchen in Clapham... afterall I went there with my sister a year ago and we walked back to her place in Oval, so it can't be that far.

OK... firstly lets remember Clapham has at least 3 Tube stations, Clapham North, Clapham South and Clapham Common. Further, there is also Clapham Junction.

So after taking them totally the wrong way, I decided it was necessary to ring Mel, my sister in Australia to find out where the GBK in Clapham is. After she complained about being woken up, she recommended jumping on a bus... Yep... Clapham is fairly big.

So after that delightful detour, we ended up having half price pizza which was really good. I had a pizza with eggplant and goats cheese and something else was on it I expect.
So here is Schelle and I at the end of the night in the bar next to the pizza place. It appears I was rather cold.

London things....

2006-11-19T21:49:00.000Z

I thought it was about time that I lived up to the title of my blog....

Here we go!

KPMG gals at the Australia v Croatia football (aka soccer) game... at the Clapham Grand

Me and Ali (one of my flat mates) at the Henley Royal Regatta... It was such a hot day (at least like 30 degrees) and in the stewards enclosure, all the men had to keep their jackets and ties on. Pimms could be purchased for the bargain price of a mere GBP20 (AUD50)...

Mel and me in Brighton

Mel and me at Wembley Arena to watch Billy Joel... this is the place NOT built by Multiplex. However, Wembley Stadium is finally looking good and the arch is lit up at night ... I can see it from work in the south east of London, and also from our flat it the north west of London
Globe theartre
Fruit stock.... free music festival at Regents park .... that Michelle

Melly at Baker street station tube, if i remember correctly... Please look at her gorgeous shoes! After much anticipation we finally saw Wicked (in fact i have now seen it twice)

The gang who when to see Vegimite Tales, a play about Aussies flat sharing in London... the draw card? It starred Blair from Big Brother (oh and Neighbours... he was the cop, i think his name is Daniel, please don't quote me on that)

Mel and I at Gordan Ramsey's restaurant, Claridges. Did not disappoint and the service was absolutely amazing... so was the price.
Heathrow express, a mere GBP15 for a 20min train ride....

Deev's half birthday, and the hair that Michelle and I dyed blond for her.... yep, trying out my hairdressing skills again (but avoiding primary colours Rachie)

Ali and I at home doing tim tam slams with Baileys and milk

Races in York... I got to go with work to entertain a client... pretty excellent.

Ok... so there are a few of things I have been up to in London. It is pretty cold now though... we have had Guy Fawkes weekend recently, and the singlet tops were replaced with gloves, jackets are and scarves....

Bananas

2006-10-25T23:20:00.000+01:00

Only 85 pence per kilo at sainsburys.....

One day in september...

2006-10-16T20:53:00.000+01:00

OK... so it didn't end well, but at least the second half was good.

I still struggle to understand why we have to leave it to the last minute to play well?? Has Paul Roos pulled together a team of guys that always left their school assignments to 11pm the day before it was due.

But lets first of relive my visits to see the boys this year... don't worry... I left in may...

Jo and I at the SCG (the only place to watch the Swans, and BTW West Coast, Telstra Stadium is no where near the SCG). I belive this was the first game of the season (swannies lost to Port Adelaide)

Me and Veggie at another game... can't remember who was playing, but I'm pretty sure we lost (veggie, does that accord to your recollection or events... I remember us drinking lots of coffee)

Well... as it tuns out, my prediction was correct. I promised back in May this year the swannies would make the grand final... I never said they would win, but in the last 10 years, the swans have been in the Grand Final 3 times... 1996, 2005 and 2006, and each of those years I wasn't in the country.... Guess I will have to take one for the team next year too..

Being without my (OK Mel's) swan's jersey, I had to go for red tights instead (rather like the wife of Bath)

In my opinion, VB is the yobbiest beer in the world... never more so than at 6am. But it was included in the GBP10 cover charge.

Here is Deev, Michelle me and Priscilla at the Walkabout in West Hampstead, eagerly awaiting a fine performance from my swannies. "Carn, Carn they cried if feebly at first" 10 points for the first one to tell me what poem that is from and who wrote it... come on megan, we only did one poet in year 12...

Sad Chris and Deev... YOU WOULD BE TOO... it was 8am on a saturday and we had already been up for four hours!!! Plus the swans lost.

BUT Deev, Michelle and I had a second breakfast about mid-day, only GBP4 for a big fry up breakfast... and like an extra GBP2 for a CRAP coffee (they don't even offer skim milk)!!!!!

Then... super exciting for me at least, Michelle and I coloured deev's hair with some blond streaks. After the fluro pink incident with Rachie (sorry again babe) we did a much better job on deev's hair. And afterwards I bought a special brush so that I can do some more later... so those of you in London after some free, experimental hair colourings... let me know.....

Berlin

2006-09-24T16:23:00.000+01:00

As you may have gathered, I am only visiting European cities that start with the letter B.

I have been to Berlin before, and was such a fan had to come back. Priscilla and I booked GBP15 tickets to berlin on a saturday morning. The thing with these tickets were the flights left at 6am, at the time we booked it made sense... you can check in remotely through the internet and then turn up an hour before the flight.

Now though you have to turn up 2hrs before, check in your back pack and wait ages till your flight leaves. This meant I had to get up at about 2am, and get the bus to Stansted (conveniently, Priscilla was at Luton).

Anyways... Priscilla and I didn't really sleep on Friday.

So of course the first thing we need to do was have breakie. We were staying at the hostel I stayed at last year ... such a friendly little hostel!!!! Plus, bargain breakie across the road.

We did a walking tour on Saturday morning all about Berlin during the cold war. This was what I came to Berlin for, to hear all about the history.

This is the British consulate in Berlin. Intersting looking building I guess. But the really interesting thing about this building is that the purple colour on this building is suppose to be the colour you would get if you mixed the colours of the the union jack together in the right proportions.

This is (apparently) the only visage of Lenin left in Berlin - potentially even Germany. Most of the communist symbols are gone. Another symbol of East Berlin is the Ampleman!!!! This is the cutest traffic man ever!!! West Berlin have the standard traffic man, and when they were reunited the Government started to replace the East Berlin traffic lights with normal (boring) traffic lights.

There were protests of course, after all, he is so adorable (for a traffic man), so he is still telling us when to walk in East Berlin... phew!

Here is Priscilla and I at the gorgeous Brandenburg Gate. The buildings in the square are necessarily bland in comparison (hence why I don't have any photos).

Interestingly, this square is also home to the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby off the window.

Priscilla and I scaling the Berlin wall. This is one part of the remaining bit of the Berlin wall which is unfenced. (Yep go figure)

The Berlin wall surrounded West Berlin and was built by the soviets/communits to stop East Germans from escaping to the West by West Berlin. Berlin sits in East Germany, and was the "thorn in Stalin's side". Because it was the capital of Germany, it was decided after WW2 to split it between the relevant parties, given its importance. So... the wall was actually two walls. In between the two walls was the "death strip" which was covered in carefully raked sand and patrolled by East Berlin guards.

Our tour guide spoke to us about the Stasi, the East German secret police. East Berlin is likely the most policed state ever. I can't remember the ratios, but there was some rediculously low number of people per secret police officer.

One bright ideas the Stasi had was to capture your scent. They use to haul you in for questioning, make you very nervous for a while, i.e. interogate you, and then the fabric on the chair was stored in a jar and kept with the information they had on you. Unbelievable

On Sunday, we did another walking tour, which was a more general one. I did this tour last year, but missed the second half... had to get on a train in Prague.

This is the site of book burning which took place under the Nazis. Interestingly, this square is in the middle of a university. Humboldt university.

THere is an underground memorial to the book burning (not this photo). There is a glass floor in the square and below that is empty bookshelves which could fit 20,000 books.

At the end of our tour on the Sunday, the tour guide (in the red top) told us about the circumstances surrounding the "fall of the wall" in 1989. Put simply, it was an accidental announcement made by an East German politician during a press conference.

He had some papers in front of him from a discussion some of the politicians had had in relation to giving East Germans unrestricted travel to the West. Turns out, this hadn't actually been officially agreed. A reporter asked him about whether the travel restrictions would be lessened, and he did not have an official briefing on this, but found these random notes, so said they would be lessened. Then the reporter asked when? Not knowing the answer, he said immediately. People then rushed down to the wall....

Here we are on a capital connect train from Gatwick airport on our way home after a lovely weekend away... next time will have to stay longer!

Visitors to London

2006-09-13T23:39:00.000+01:00

OK... so i have been here for almost 4 months now... the anniversary date is 21 May 2006....

So here are some photos of the visitors i've had (I can seriously not express how good it was to see you over here!!!)
First was Gabby from uni!!! This is Gabby, me and michelle watching the first England world cup game in a Covent Garden pub.

Next was a brief visit from Susan (Kirrabilli church). We got to catch up over pizza at Pizza Express. It was Susan's friend Conia who got me onto the Verdure pizza with goats cheese at Pizza Express... highly recommend it

Me and Bron (school friend) at Trafalgar square... that was such a hot day

Me and Liz (uni friend who was on her way home from boston after 6 months work... thanks again for my pink boston cap!!!) outside buckingham palace (I also have a new fringe in this photo just incase you didn't notice... michelle!!)

Me and Jee (Jee), from work in Sydney... having dinner at ... yep PIZZA EXPRESS. I had the verdure pizza with goat's cheese... good for a change.

Billyard group reunion at southbank... Franko (now living in london), Alison (visiting from Sydney) Me and Priscilla. We all worked together in the same group at KPMG

Dave Luis (uni) and me on the tube... doing something you don't see very often on the tube... can you guess... yep smiling!:)

Budapest

2006-09-02T00:59:00.000+01:00

You know how people say it is so cheap to travel from London? Well it isn't when Easy Jet cancels the cheap flight you book to Budapest for a long weekend, and you are forced to fly WIZZAIR instead (bad name, but much better than easy jet... they travel to eastern europe- will be using them again).

Here is a photo of the hard side of european travelling for aussies... it is 4am and the mini cab is waiting for Priscilla and me to deliver us to Luton airport.... Poor Priscilla was sufferring from a servere lack of sleep. She'd just got back from the Greek Islands... hear it does wonders for you sleep patturn.

Our first, most must do thing in Budapest was visit the hot baths... we even were able to get hour long massages and exclaim at the price that it was so cheap (OK... so cheap in comparison to London prices....)

We spent about 4 hours at the baths... Priscilla even bought me some swimmers.... from Tesco.... a whole GBP4. She was fortunate enough to get some one size fits all cossie off a magazine....
The Sunday we spent doing a walking tour around Budapest. This is Heros' Square which has lots of statues of old kings and well known Hungarians.

I learnt a number of valuable (OK trivial) things about Hungary....
1. THe Rubics cube was invented there... by mr rubics
2. The biro was invented there... by mr biro
3. Budapest has the second oldest tube in europe (before you ask... London has the oldest).

This is a well known Hungarian called "anonymous" who wrote down the early history of hungary... Like all cities, this is the statue you touch for good luck....
The little princess by the Danube...
This lion is on the chain bridge which connects Buda to Pest (hence the name). The bridge was designed by a scotsman (i think). He declared that he would jump into the icy danube if there were any problems with the bridge.

Looking at this lion can you see his mistake? The lion has no tongue, so he got to take a swim in the danube.
Our cool tour group, which consited of an unusual bunch that would be hard to come across... Americans and Australians... sometimes you can't help but be surprised.

Hungary is known for paprika... so i had to buy 1/2kg of it.

Priscilla and I finished our time in BUdapest at a lovely coffee house with super lovely cakes... then it was back to london (and some sleep for priscilla)

Next stop is Berlin....

Barcelona

2006-08-21T20:59:00.000+01:00

My lovely sister Mel has spent the last couple of months travelling around Europe on busabout... what an excellent opportunity for me to visit....

I was greated in Barcelona by Mel outside the hostel on Thursday night with a glass of sangria. Mel and a Kiwi gal had expended the grand sum of EUR1.50 for a 750ml bottle of sangria...

Probably the most amazing building in Barcelona is this church that has been under construction for a couple of hundred years (OK i can't remember the actual amount of time, but it is really quite a while)

After taking some photos outside the chruch, I noticed this poster....
Looks like I will have to wait another 14 years or so before I can see it finished without the additional cranes... interestingly, even the postcards of the church included the cranes.... guess they've been there for a while

Spanish beer...
Spanish beach...

TAPAS!

More sangria at the hostel... a bargain at EUR4 for a mug....

Along with tapas, Mel and took advantage of a local festival that was on and had some good paella (apologies if I've misspelt that)

There is a feral pigeon place too in Barcelona, Mel and I had to duck and weave our way back to the hostel via this square

Borough Market

2006-08-12T19:54:00.000+01:00

Borough Markets.... such a lovely part of London... there is such an unbelievable amount of food there... and it is amazing!!!!

Michelle (Sydney gal who I met at my church in Kirrabilli) and I decided to head to the markets last saturday before we went to a music festival called Fruit Stock. After I got very mixed up between Bond Street and Baker Street (we were meeting at Bond st station, but i waited at baker st station for about 15 mins... mobiles don't work on the underdground) we headed to London Bridge tube station and spent about an hour and a half wandering around and choosing what we should take for our picnic.

Here I am with the required Sainsbury's cool bag, ready to shop.

Michelle and I headed for Regent's park to go to Fruit Stock which is an annual music festival put on by a fresh juice company... unfortunately the juice wasn't free. BUT it was such a lovely sunny day. We just lay in the sun (with 50+ suncream on like good Australians) enjoying the weather and the music (and naturally the food).

Speaking of food, we were so taken by Borough markets we went again this saturday for lunch. I had a Chorizio roll... Schelle had a Venison burger. The delights of burough markets also includes a shop called Konditor and Cook, which is ledgendary in my mind because of my sister Mel.

K&C is close to where she used to work, so she introduced me to the boston brownie last year. It has cranberries in it and no walnuts (afterall they ruin anything they are in, well in my opinion). But today I refrained from the BB, instead I had a cup of hot chocolate, which was effectively melted chocolate infused with vanilla beans and a dash of milk.

Copenhagen

2006-08-12T17:54:00.000+01:00

Well here is my first blog... my trip to Copenhagen. Priscilla (Sydney KPMG gal who is on secondment over here too) and I managed to get up bright and early on the saturday morning to get our 6.30am stansted flights....

This is my quintessential photo of Copenhagen .... the lovely little mermaid who was alot smaller than we expected. After waiting for about 20 middle aged tourists in leather soled shoes to traverse the 3 rocks to the statue for their photos, I tried to do it super quick and ended up in the water with a big bruise on my hip (and wet shorts). Unbelievable!!

We also visited the square with the balcony that Princess Mary got to wave to the crowds after her wedding, only thing was there were about 6 balconies looking very similar, so we were unable to pin point the exact balcony.

Tivoli is an amusement park in Copenhagen... we ended up having dinner there on saturday night.

Sunday morning was a traditional scandinavian breakfast. Flitered coffee, cold meat, slab of brie cheese, slices of jarlsberg cheese and rye bread. Just what we needed to get us ready of our flight home... which was delayed by 3 hours.... So annoying!!! Now easy jet has cancelled our flight to Budapest for the long weekend.... I guess you get what you pay for :)