European Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:58:00 +0000

Hi all!
As many of you know I am back in Australia and am now living and working in Canberra (our nation's capital). Being in yet another new place, considering what life is, what it means and what's important (in between the moments of drunk haze of course), has led me to gather together a top/best/favourites list for my travels overseas in the last year or so...

I will be starting another blog on life back in Australia including stuff from my discoveries of Canberra.

I thank all of you so much for being interested in what I've been up to. It's been great to catch up with some of you recently. But for those of you who have commented to me over the last year - even very briefly or only once - I thank you for being a friend/mate/associate. Whatever our relationship is, believe me, I have appreciated it. I hope that our paths cross again in the future.

And now - my list of top/best/favourite memories from my year away.

Accomplishment: Climbing to the top of the castle in the town of Kotor, Montenegro above the ancient fjord (the most southern in Europe incidently).

Animal spotting: seal in Stornoway harbour.

Beach: Kaladi on island of Kythera, Greece.

Beer: Munich, Germany (hands down! Especially coz served in a giant stein!).

Best looking men Toss-up between Spain and Sweden.

Cheapest clothes: Markets in Camberwell, London - 3 pieces for 5 pound, who can argue with that?

Cocktail: Pina Colada - Muscat, Oman.

Feeling of freedom: being in the wild and windy (& often rainy and cold) conditions of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides.

Frost (!): Sofia, Bulgaria.

Jewellry: silver necklace with a star pendant purchased in Stockholm.

Location to buy a house/shack for future travel: beach in Greece or Turkey.

London attractions: London Eye and St James' Park.

London Pub: Founders Arms, on the river near Blackfriars Bridge.

Memorable silly quotation: 'Dust! Anybody?... Dust! Anybody?' (c/o John Tully for Little Britain).

Memorable song: Snow Patrol, Chasing Cars.

Most valuable toiletry: toothpaste, followed very closely by lip balm.

Mountain views: Dolomites, northern Italy.

Musical event: charity concert, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Omelette: Budva, Montenegro.

Panic moment: driving in -2 degrees & snow over a mountain range in Yorkshire.

Picturesque views: Cinque Terre, London skyline, Dolomite mountains (Italy), Cappadocian formations.

Pizza: Venice, Italy.

Purchase: Leather jacket in Selcuk, Turkey.

Quote from a real person: 'Is that attraction political?'

Rainbow: tie between the rainbow over the Callanish stones (Outer Hebrides, Scotland) and double rainbow in Devon when travelling on road trip with Margaret.

Realising I really am from a summery part of the southern hemisphere: having to ask at the markets in Split what the green fuzzy stuff was and why they were selling it for Christmas. (Ummm yes, forgetting my biology, the stallholder told me 'moss?! It goes under the tree?!')

Ruins: Mycenae - approximately settled in 14th C BC, complete with the original underground spring.

Sandwich: The toasted sausage, egg, cheese, sauce delight in Selcuk, Turkey.

Scary moment: realising I was lost near Regents Park, London at 12 at night and no one was around except for a few drunks and then two yobs that jumped the fence from the locked park - eek!

Shoe shopping: Sofia, Bulgaria (hands down!!).

Sporting moments: reinacting the footraces at Delphi and winning the volleyball competition held by Defra.

Sunset: Amalfi Coast, Italy.

Travel mate: Leilani - we shared some great moments from walking in Cinque Terre, discussing the future while en route in the Mondeo, nights out in London. Gonna miss you babe!

Trinket: Evil Eye - Greece, Turkey.

Umbrella purchase - asking 'las paraguas?' in numerous shops between bouts of getting hammered by torrential rain in Seville (weather had been perfect up until that point).

Work: reflecting that when I first started with Defra I really had no idea about mad cow disease, what a prion is and how research is done into Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy diseases... I learned a lot :)

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:40:00 +0000

Wow - I'm home!!! Have been now for a week. The journey from the airport to home was definitely a trip-out - so much space in Brisbane, lots of open sky and very few people around.

Anyway, just a quick update on my last few days in London. I moved out to Leilani and Johnno's place on the east side and proceeded to fill their lounge room with all my stuff.

On Sunday I left early in the morning to get up to Stansted Airport where I had arranged a hire car as I was going to pick Margaret up and we were going to meet up with another great aunt of mine, Bette, and her daughter, Lesley (who I had never met). They live out near Bath. After some annoying London transport issues I finally arrived on a replacement bus to the airport (yes I had to pay the full train fare and received a much slower trip on the bus!). Got Margaret all loaded up and we were off!

It was a really fun couple of days seeing one family member that I haven't seen in years and meeting others I've never met! Margaret and I actually stayed at the same b&b that Bette used to own many years ago. Still standing and still keeping it's old-age charm. We then After time in a little village near Bath, I went to Bath and saw the baths :) An absolutely lovely town! Margaret and I then continued on down south towards Devon and ended up in a town called Ilminster with it's own cider-making establishment (apparently there is no brewing so can't call it a brewery).

Lunch near Frome. Me, Margaret, Lesley, Bette.

The Roman Baths in the background of my head.

The Baths and the beautiful cathedral in the background.

The New Inn, Ilminster. Sweet little place.

After a night at the Inn we continued our drive in a westerly direction. Unfortunately we were running out of time and we didn't make the coast. But we did get to Dartmoor National Park where I proceeded to go galavanting up over the countryside while Margaret patiently waited for me in the car. It was windswept plains of moors with a pretty cool view. The clouds went whipping by and brought rain in intermittent bursts. Anyway, I loved the fresh air and openness!

Dartmoor National Park - me sitting on the wall of some Bronze Age house.

A better photo of the stone hut construction.

It was getting late so we had to head back towards Abbots Langley and London. But not before visiting the gorgeous Avebury stones. These things are amazing as they cover a huge area of land and the little town of Avebury just exists within them. The motorway even goes in between fields of them. I never went to Stonehenge but some people say the Aveburys are nicer because they're not so touristed.
What an ambience!

Another view.

One of the white horses cut into the hillside. Apparently there is more than one!

After the adventure off into Devon with Margaret, I eventually got the hire car back to Stansted airport and headed back to Lei and Johnno's place. It was great to spend time with the two of them and they (& the rest of the Walthamstow house gang) really looked after me. We had a great weekend down at Eastbourne where we visited the beach (stones!!! although it was advertised as sand!) and ate fish and chips and hung out in the sun. We went for a walk over an area protected as National Park and Johnno's claims that the cliffs nearby are a suiciders dream location were in fact correct!!

On the Saturday night we went to a Belgian pub and got buckets of mussells - brilliant!!

Eastbourne

Johnno and I and the fated cliffs (& beautiful view)

View over the fated cliffs.

Ahh mussells and Belgian beer!

And following from now just a few more pics of some of the places I got to with Lei and Johnno before I left for Aust.

Lei and I also got to the London Zoo where the highlight was definitely the gorillas! This one seemed to love all the people (I think the everyone's faces show how special it was to be so close to these amazing creatures).

Johnno and the great big thistle at Kew Gardens.

Lei and Johnno showing their appreciation of Aussie gum trees.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:28:00 +0000

So I'm now at home after my last day at work, and last after-work beers with workmates. I am sad to leave Defra. I've been there for 5 months and the time really has flown! I've had such a good time despite some challenges - of course I am always going to have some issues when working with intelligent, head-strong people.

The plans from now:

Enjoying London touristy things such as Westminster Abbey, Natural History Museum, the London Eye. I'll also be moving out of the Camberwell flat on Friday or Saturday to Lei and Johnno's place. Saturday, going to catch up with Patrina as she's back in London for a day (after being in Florence learning Italian for a month <-- jealous!) before flying back to Bris.
Then Sunday: off to Bath to visit family (great-aunt and my dad's cousin) with Margaret (my other great-aunt).
Then maybe I'll get some more travel in around Europe, but flights are crazily expensive right now, being the height of summer season.
Saturday 11th/Sunday 12th: last chance for catch up with London mates.
Monday 13th: PACK! and fly to Bangkok Monday night.
Tuesday/Wednesday: in Bangkok
Thursday 16th: fly to Brisbane (via Sydney) and arrive in Brisbane on the morning of the 17th.
THEN: I have a whole month for chilling and catching up with you Brisbanites! And then it's a move to Canberra for a job with Land and Water!! I start there on the 17th of September.

So there you go. Some exciting changes. Gosh, I'm going to miss London and the people I've met. And Johnno and Lei will be here till January and then they travel through Africa - I am going miss them immensely!

About the job, for those of you that haven't heard about it. Basically I saw an ad in NRMjobs with Land and Water in a knowledge management team working on projects with NRM groups. Anyway, it looked like a good job so I applied to see how I'd fare in the Aussie market after my stint OS. I got a phone interview and then was (amazingly) offered the job! They sound like lovely people, with all sorts of backgrounds. So Canberra - another adventure! With a population of around 300,000 people it's a far-cry from London! But Lei tells me if you like sport in Canberra, then it's great fun. And Canberra is about 3 and a half hours from Sydney. So, Ben, you should expect a visit now and then!! And beach volleyball at Manly, here I come!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:11:00 +0000

Sunday: From Oslo I needed to get to Stockholm as it was my departure point back to London on Monday night. I was originally going to catch a train but that was going to cost about £35 and take 7 hours! Not the best after already being on a train for so many hours in the last few days. Got online and managed to find an airfare that only cost slightly more.

The weather was once again beautiful and from the airport, I headed straight for town and walked around the old part of town, Gamla Stan. This is a touristy area too, but it was worth negotiating the human traffic to get to the numerous gelati and hot dog shops!!
The bridge into the island, Gamla Stan.

Stockholm lazing is all about the water, particularly as the city is built over 14 islands, with people cruising around on boats and ferries leaving to visit some of the 24,000ish islands in the huge archipelago east of Stockholm. After chilling out by the harbour/lake for a bit, I found my hostel. An ex-cruise ship that is now permanently anchored and plays host to backpackers and hotel-goers. I was allocated a dorm with 12 beds and the only beds left were top bunks. I picked one with a port-hole nearby, but it only had about 2 foot of space above me when lying down - no sitting up in bed in the middle of the night!
Found the bar on the 'roof' of the boat.

Both Oslo and Stockholm have a photo exhibition by Steve Bloom on at the moment (till September), sponsored by WWF. Brilliant, stunning, emotive, fun photos of animals in their native environments, with captions explaining how they are threatened.

After the photo exhibition, I wandered around the Djurgarden island with extensive parks and Tivoli-Grona Lund - the amusement park. There's also a zoo, ritzy hotels, an open-air historical museum and an aquarium.
Some cantankerous geese. Cute but when I was crouching on the ground to get this picture a few of them started stalking me, hissing with their beaks open and tongues out!

And then I came across the highlight of Stockholm entertainment. Some free concert thing in a city square - some crazy Swedish group with a lead singer in lycra!

Ummmm, didn't realise there was space for underpants under those trousers!

I met a guy who lives in Sweden and we shared some beers while watching the bungee-jumping. Jodi was pretty interesting as his parents were from Dubai and Turkey and they moved all around the world, and as such, Jodi could speak Hindi, English, Turkish and Swedish. And a couple of his siblings can speak Arabic - all depending on where they were and for how long... So many interesting people in Stockholm, a big ethnic mix, which I never would have guessed.

Anyway, apparently the entertainment was all part of some free festival where companies put on things for free as promotion. So there were all these people bungee-jumping for free from a crane! Although I acknowledge it was a great chance to try bungee-jumping, I also realised that I'm a sook and I don't think I could actually let go of the railings in the tiny box the brave punters were raised in. A few people chickened out and were lowered back down. After that, it was back to the backpackers boat. Snapped the pic below of the view across to Gamla Stan (this was 12am).

And then I got back to the backpackers boat and a whole bunch of Americans were just heading out to the bars. So I went along :) I think it was about 12:30am when we were walking back into town and it still wasn't completely dark. Then, it got pretty dark for about an hour, and by 3:40am the sky looked like the following photo!

And John was also keen on taking pics of the dawn!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 23:22:00 +0000

So my last few days of work now - well hasn't 5 months gone by so quickly!! I'm coming to the end of my year away from Aus!! A warning now to you all, there'll be some mighty big reflecting going on :)

But first! My weekend - finally another bit of travel. Just to get as much in as I can... Flew to Oslo, Norway very early on Friday morning (after a 3:30am wakeup alarm) which meant I had a full day to check out the city, enjoy the sunshine and plan a trip to see the famous fjords of South Norway. Some of them are heritage-listed!

I left a rainy Friday morning in London for brilliant, sunny, warm weather in Oslo. A good day apparently, as they've had just as much rain and have been bemoaning one of the worst summers on record, just like in the UK. After a walk around town, seeing lots and lots of people shopping and enjoying the outdoor cafes (it is Norwegian tourist season after all), I found my way to the Royal Palace. I love that I have managed to see a few changing of guards in different European countries. The guards here were a bit nonchalent and I was surprised when they actually talked and waved to people to get them off the brickwork...

After looking at the brilliant view over Oslo, and getting some lady to take a not-so-brilliant photo of me in front of the vista, I found my way to the water's edge. A boat trip on the Oslo fjord, lovely, yes please - I'll take one! The guide was very good and she told stories of missionaries, lovers looking for romance, and Nazi supporters. And on one island people let 2 rabbits go and of course they bred like mad, causing a rabbit plague. So the government had to step in and they let some foxes go. They timed it very badly though apparently because the fjord froze over and all the foxes left - without the rabbits... Anyway, with the sun on my back, the cool breeze and the smell of salt, it all got a bit much and the early-start caught up with me...

View over Oslo from the Palace (behind me)

City Hall, on the harbour, with a cool fountain (& sculpture)

On the boat - coming back into Oslo fjord (straight towards city hall)

Off the boat I was on a big walking mission to the north-side of town. Well that was after a bit of a sit down near a lovely fountain and a snack. After discovering that Oslo really is a very quiet town away from the harbour and the shops, and that the trams seem like fun, I found a little shop to pick up some more supplies. Bought apricots, peanuts & sparkling apple juice, just to tide me over, then I noticed a sign saying 'borek' and then I realised the guy looked very Turkish. 'I am from Turkey' he said and was amazed I was from Australia. After a very bad Turkish version of thank you (teshekyer ederim <--not how it's spelt officially ok?!) and his laugh, I was out the door. My mission?? The Vigeland sculpture park.

Not many of you probably know that I loved making sculptures out of clay when I was younger. Particularly at school - I got an A+ for my body part which happened to be a giant breast. (I think Mr Honeywell got great artistic pleasure from my creation.) Anyway, this sculpture park is the number one tourist attraction in Oslo, it's free, and I was not going to miss it! It's a stunning park with rose gardens and walkways and lots of space.

View up the hill of the sculpture epi-centre.

The story goes that the great sculptor Gustav Vigeland was running out of room in his studio so he struck up a deal with the government of the day that he would donate all his sculptures to the public to be enjoyed in a public park, in exchange for the gov building him some more studios. Well, what a great idea. I had a very relaxing time there, admiring lots of body parts out in the open, smelling the various coloured roses (yes Andrew, the yellow ones are still my favourite!!), and watching the locals spark up there portable/disposable bbqs. The barbequeing went long into the night and was still going when I left at about 9:30pm to catch my night train over the other side of the country to Bergen.

A tower of bodies, with lots of other bodies around, doing lots of different things...

Just chilling (near a great-looking leg)

But then there's all these bronze sculptures on the main walkway in. Now what is going on here... See those children monsters have been around for ages!

Ahhh the smoke from the bbqs at sunset (10pm)

About 42 minutes of sleep later and it was 7am at Bergen. I dragged myself to the Hardangerfjord tour bus (actually a local bus that tourists are organised to get on) and was told by the bus driver I had the wrong tickets. Stupid tourist office had booked me a tour as if I was leaving from Bergen and returning to Bergen - not back to Oslo later that night... But it wasn't a problem (maybe it happens all the time) and the bus driver just took the ticket for the other direction, and so did the boat guy and the next bus guy... etc.

A lady on the bus got chatting to me and she was an interesting character. Born in Germany, she moved to the USA at about 16 to study. She still lives there but regularly travels around the world to take lessons from a Chi Gung expert. She's a feng shui, chi gung, energy expert. Was great to spend some time with her and chat about life and travel and the beauty of the surrounding countryside.

Through the scenic countryside - meaning fields of grass, then trees and then steep-walled waterways, then to the harbour and onto a boat in the Hardanger Fjord.
The boat trip was definitely the highlight!

Did someone say symmetry?

Yes... 10 points to whoever guesses first (via the comment feature below) on who this guy reminded me of. Yes, he is a Greek person.

What can I say, look at the following pictures to get an idea of the scenery. And yes, even though it is 'summer' in the northern hemisphere, that snow was real and the chilly breeze on the boat very really went through my flimsy, light-weight clothes (thank the world for thermals and rain jackets :)

After the boat ride it was onto another bus and up onto the Hardangervidda mountain plateau. We went to the national park office and I got to hug a reindeer. There was lots of information on the nearby Hardangerjøkulen Glacier (where apparently all the winter scenes in Star Wars Part II (The Empire Strikes Back) were shot). I'd love to go on a glacier walk and when I travel in Europe again - I will make sure I do it! The national park office had some great exhibits, including lots of stuffed lemmings! So this is where the silly little things come from. They're quite adapted to living under snow though, so full credit to 'em.

I had noticed travelling around that a lot of houses have grass on their rooves. I imagine that grass could get pretty long - one solution = a pair of goats!!! Very entertaining.
Come here little fella!!!

Spot the goats.

After that, the bus stopped at a waterfall. Great views over the valley.

The bus then dropped me at Voss train station and I waited around for about 3/4 hour for my train back to Oslo. It was a pleasant train ride back, leaving Voss at 7pmish and getting back into Oslo at 10:30pm. Of course, I had to have a few naps along the way! I wished I'd had a book to read.
A snapshot from the train window.

Back into Oslo town at the end of a full-on 24 hours, I was off to find my hostel. After wandering around on Storangata street for about half an hour, I realised where Storgata was - hmm another 15 minutes away. Got there just before reception closed at 12am and got in for a shower. Ahhh and now for a sleep-in right?! before I go to Stockholm. No way! Was woken by three annoying yanks at 6am who were packing their suitcases (from empty!!) with what seemed like thousands of plastic bags. That's hostelling with unlike-minded people for ya! (Next installment will be Stockholm!)

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:30:00 +0000

Some more pics from London-town. Gosh it's been great fun, and I've met some great people. Individuals I hope to stay in touch with forever!! (Stalker alert ***) :)
Tahnee, Lei, Kasia, Scott and me - celebrating my birthday!! Thanks guys!!! Was a fun night (with a few too many pints on my behalf) and it was all the more interesting when an abandoned backpack prompted a visit from the police

Out the front of the pub waiting to be let back in. Cops a blur in the background!

Mika, Kasia, Tamsin, Alison and me at a gothic pub one Monday night. Spider-webs, skeletons and the door to the toilets through a wall that was a giant bookcase.

One Saturday (actually it was the Tour de France weekend, 7th July - won't forget that coz I made the ill-fated mistake of taking a bus rather than the tube and got stuck in horrendous traffic!) I went over to Notting Hill for dinner and drinks with Patrina and Rosie. Patrina is friends with my brother James, and Rosie is her cousin. They'd just got back from a 35(!) day Contiki tour...

Anyway, we went to a pretty fab Italian restaurant (although the bill wasn't too fab ;)) and enjoyed some drinks.
Mmm pizza... Look at those lovely tans!! Bloody travellers in areas of Europe that actually have a summer!!!!!

I stayed over and the next day Rosie and I met up with Lei and Johnno to check out the Brick Lane markets. Now these have a reputation as being really good. I don't rate them personally. A whole lot of junk. A couple of good musicians getting about but the nutcase on top of a shipping container preaching about something or other, didn't rate a mention... well except I've mentioned him... Anyway, moving right along - after the markets, we fulfilled Rosie's dreams of walking across the crossing on Abbey Road outside the Beatles' old studio. You know, the one in the famous pic that's on the front cover of one of their albums... or something... Rosie, why aren't you telling this story? anyway... pics below!
The Brick Lane markets. At least it wasn't raining! And Lei found a good deal on a shower hose I believe...

The original:
c-o Wikipedia
Our attempt - not great but I bet the Beatles didn't have to cope with traffic. Just wish we'd had a 2007 model of a beetle in the background of our pic. Oh well...
c-o some Spanish guy who took the photo with Rosie's camera.
The wall outside the studios with adornments of love etc.

Ahhh aren't they cute! Lei and Johnno proving they visited Abbey Road.

And of course, we finished off a lovely Sunday with a Sunday session at one of my favourite pubs, the Old Ship on the Thames at Hammersmith!! Beers and gourmet burgers. And it was so good, JT even got in a nap in the sun!
Johnno, Lei and I and some other randoms...

View of the river.

And just a couple more London pics AT NIGHT!
The Eye, different colours on different nights.

The tower where Big Ben lives

Some stretch 4wd-looking thing

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:28:00 +0000

Just a few pics from the horse riding weekend in Wales. I went with Tamsin and her friend and we met about 6 others, a few of whom I have stayed in contact with since.

It was good fun going riding again after not doing it for ages but one of the (English) guys had never been on a horse before and hated the whole experience. Worse still, he sulked for the rest of the weekend.
Yummy dinner! (Tony who runs the place is a trained and experienced chef)

Starting out through town. Easy riding now but wait till later...

My horse Wesley.

Hmmmm, slippery grass, tracks that became rivulets and swollen streams - add to that inexperienced horse riders and some very average instructors. Potential disaster! Luckily we avoided pain and anguish (& only gained a few grey hairs probably).

Ahhhh drinks and a huge spa! What a way to relax out of the rain.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:51:00 +0000

So, the 52nd English prime minister is now in office. A big goodbye to Tony Blair after 10 years.

You've probably seen some of the footage of the flooding in the UK?? Pretty terrible stuff really - some areas got a month's worth of rain in 24 hours and it is apparently the wettest June on record!!! Johnno and I saw some rain on the weekend in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire but nothing like the chaos some have experienced in Sth Yorkshire and the Sheffield areas... Anyway, Johnno and I took a weekend out of London just gone. And what better plan than a roadtrip in the Mondeo. Yes, Lei was sadly missing but I don't really care to mourn that much coz she's off having a brill time exploring the UK, Russia, Latvia, Spain etc. with her sister... lucky woman!

Anyway, after Johnno managed to find his way from East London (East-17 actually - yes where the band got their name from... 'Everybody... everybody in the house of love'...) to south London it took another hour to get out of Central London. Too many traffic lights! Then headed north-west towards Birmingham. Not before stopping off at Stratford-upon-Avon - a touristy town, sure, but lovely!! Obsessed with Shakespeare. JT and I enjoyed our chuckles in response to the 'informative' signs about the possibility that John Shakespeare's father's dog might have done such and such at some time.
People people everywhere....

Yes, a swan and it's cignets... Don't get to close or it'll go ya!

As we drove out of Stratford-upon-Avon, we saw signs for Mary Arden's house - William Shakespeare's mother's childhood home. It's basically a few buildings that have been restored to some degree, farm animals, people dressed up in Elizabethan-style clothes, and (THE HIGHLIGHT) a falconry display. Apparently falconry was something supported by royalty as entertainment as well as a hunting technique. Even with Johnno constantly nattering about him buying a falcon or training up some Aussie peregrines, I really enjoyed seeing the show. The falconer sent the bird off who rapidly caught a thermal up, up and up. Then after some coaxing, the bird (a Saker falcon, IUCN Endangered - for those who want to know) slowly circled above us before embarking on his amazing descent. Basically he tucks his wings in and drops at high speed (I'm talking like 300km/hr... Is that right Johnno?) towards the ground and smashes his prey - birds, not ground-dwellers, as he'd be in trouble if he went shooting towards the ground for a rabbit or something.... Anyway, it was very impressive and the bird is gorgeous!!
The very informative falconer worried about the grey skies...

Saker flying past after trying to get the 'prey' on the end of the falconer's rope.

What a gorgeous animal! particularly as it tears apart the corpse of a day-old chick...
Johnno and I then continued north to the city of Birmingham, the UK's second-largest city. Apparently it's somewhere that doesn't have many tourist activities but it's a great party place. And, we found an awesome Indian restaurant!! I can never remember what my dishes are called but I had some lamb and spinach sauce thing. Johnno almost choked on his first mouthful due to the heat but a couple of beers helped with all that... Afterwards, our stuffed bellies and the rest of our bodies finally found a backpackers which was actually rooms in a pub that is open during the week... Not the cleanest room I've been in and I had to have a shower with the largest spider I've seen in the UK bouncing around in the cubicle (ok, he wasn't that big, but still, I don't like spiders that much!). The only 'party' place we went to was a very scary pub - full of very strange people... What else can I say? Anyway, the music was good!

So the next day, we were off south to Tewkesbury - stopped off in town for me to buy some souveneirs and to go to the small local museum. My grandma's family lived for a bit in Tewkesbury (and my Dad was born just west of Birmingham too - in Wolverhampton). Tewkesbury Abbey was great!! Founded in 1100ish to house (Benedictine) monks and then after the dissolution in 1540 most of it was quarried for materials but the Abbey Church was sold to the parishioners for £450. My Dad used to sing here when he was a chorister as a young boy. Lovely!
In the choir pews

The inside of the Abbey

Out in the (very) green garden.

The Abbey and the lovely herb garden.

After Tewkesbury, we headed to Evesham (where my Dad went to school), Broadway (where he lived before he came to Australia), and Bourton-on-the-water (just some pretty town along the way)... Broadway is a lovely little town - VERY TRENDY though. Felt a bit like a really English Maleny... or maybe not... Anyway, great to see (& hear the posh accents).

Outside the Prince Henry's school where my Dad went to school

Broadway High Street

Johnno on one of the Roman bridges in Bourton-on-the-Water.

Anyway, after all that site-seeing we headed back to London. I was pretty tired so didn't mind Johnno reciting Adam Sandler's 'Medium Pace' song...

Off to Wales for a horse riding weekend next. Looking forward to it! Except for this crazy weather....

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 22:25:00 +0000

Yo, yo, bit tipsy. Mid-week too! Great! Something a bit different from the normal 'working' life. Eh... Great night at a club called Pause - their 3rd birthday party and they celebrated with free drinks and food and Cuban music and salsa dancing. Brilliant !!!!!

Anyway, what's new? I have joined Facebook, so if you're a member, bloody well get in touch!!! Facebook is seriously taking over London!!! http://www.facebook.com (Maybe I'll delete this post before anyone sees it :P)

Michelle, congrats on your pregnancy! Can't wait to see you and to be at the wedding, when it happens! So happy for you babe!

To those who are newly single, rejoice in the fact you have time for yourself and you can choose your path in life without being held back :) And you can dance with whoever you want!!

Trevor, the Indian Ringneck, if you're out there reading this, particularly in the Bridgeman Downs area, your owners want you to return home.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:57:00 +0000

Righto, we all know that London is now the 2nd most expensive city in the world after Moscow... so now here are a few things to compare.

Rent: £350-465/month. This is the range I have paid since renting rooms. Least expensive = flat in Camberwell, most expensive = house in a share-house in Hammersmith.
Sandwich: Tesco = £1.50-2.50, Sandwich shop = £2.50-350
Burger at a pub = £8ish
Pint of beer = £2.60-3.20
Litre of diesel = £0.98
Pint of milk = £0.30-0.50
Bus ticket = £1 (£2 if no Oyster card <-- note get an Oyster card if you come to London, even for a few days as a tube journey that could be £1.50 within zone 1 only would be £4 without an Oyster card)
Loaf of bread = £0.50-1.50 for posh bread
Cheap shoes = £5
Contact lens solution - maybe $13 in Aus is £8 in London
200g of no-brand chocolate = £1

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 17:30:00 +0000

Ahhh another Sunday, recovering from little sleep a bit of a Heineken hangover... So what's been happening in my London life...

Yesterday, after a lovely sleep in after the tiring Sports Day, Tash and I went shopping for some new clothes. I bought 2 dresses, a pair of pants and a pair of high heels. The main goal was finding an outfit for Saturday night's activities - namely visiting a reggae and RnB club.

Katy, who lives with Lei and Johnno, came over for a few drinks before the club and she headed home about 12:30am and then it was off to the club... Eventually... didn't get there till 2am! Not the preferred time for me as I was thinking my bed looked quite enticing actually, but it was a pretty cool club. I think most people were from Jamaica - I only saw 2 other white people in the whole club (a couple of women). It was good fun grooving to some reggae and receiving the occasional invitation to dance. This was via a very subtle tap to the elbow and a nod of the head rather than the more outlandish Redback (read: sleazy/loud Aussie/Kiwi bar) way of coming up and yelling out 'hey what's up gorgeous' in sync with somewhat unappealing close dancing... Ok, so that's my honest description :)

And of course some pictures of us looking fine follow... I'm confident I looked awake for a few hours at least... that was until we dragged ourselves out of the club at 5am (in the broad daylight, it was)!!

My (very tall and stunning) flatmate Tash and I (in new dress).

Chilling out on the club couches...

This afternoon, after the sleep in of course, it was off to the Cuban Festival in Southwark Park. Kind of the same as Paniyiri (Greek Festival) in Brisbane except more people, way more party, and LOTS of sexy dancing (Kim, you would have loved it!).

One of the bands getting into it. These guys had never played in the UK before and they went off. Although I had no idea what they were talking about in their Cuban version of Spanish. Although I did very much enjoy the 'One ton Rodeo' song...

The crowd & the smoke from all the barbeques cooking chicken and fish.

What a poser - this bloke loved lifting his shirt and gyrating around the stage!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 22:51:00 +0000

Hey, back from the Defra Sports Day now where my team won!!! (more below).
Gosh I've had a great couple of weeks!

Settled in at my new flat in Camberwell, on the southside. Very close to work. Living with one girl, Tash, who's brilliant. So then just work, work, work... And of course trying to make the most of what London has to offer.
Some pics from my new place... My room...

View from the kitchen - train line in foreground who's often-running trains surprisingly doesn't bother me, and Big Ben and the London Eye. (Big Ben is about 3 miles away as the crow flies.)

The London Eye lit up at night. Camberwell in the foreground.

Went to A Midsummer Night's Dream at the open air theatre in Regent's Park. Got £13 tickets on lastminute.com and it was brilliant. A great story that we all roughly know, but to see it live with great singers and actors was great. And there were some very funny moments including old mate who got turned part-donkey!!
Look at all those fairies...

Fairies lazing around...

On a weekend, I went to Brighton - on the southern coast of England and the very popular weekend destination. The beach is stony but there are beach chairs for hire. Along the boulevard are small food and market stalls and a couple of pubs with live music were going off. AND I found the beach volleyball court!! What a brilliant afternoon I had playing a bit of beach (with my ad hoc partner Luigi) and amazing myself that I still retain some beach fitness :)
The Pier with the famous rides at the end.

Ahhhh, idyllic!

And other during-the-week activities have included seeing live music and catching up with ex-flatmates. Below Chris, Chris and Steph - from the Chiswick House.

And now... Onto Defra Sports Day. It was on Friday, started at 12pm. It's basically an afternoon of government employees playing games, eating burgers, drinking LOTS of beer. And they get paid for their time (which Agency employees, such as me, don't :( unfortunately). But I truly believe in it being a great day for bonding. Sports included: running, shot put, rounders, soccer/football, netball, cricket, high jump, long jump, tug of war... Anyway, we had a volleyball team put together of men and women from 4 different offices in London. I think we looked pretty smart in our uniforms! £2.50 bargains :) Love it! (Yep, that's what you get when Claire buys the shirts :))
View from the club house towards the volleyball courts.

Woohoo get over that bar!!

The team!! (Minus Surjeet at this stage)

The team (minus Mischa) after collecting our medals and the trophy from Helen Ghosh (permanent secretary).

And another one! thumbs up :)

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:43:00 +0000

And now, the much-awaited (yeh I'm sure... all you busy bees!!) pics from the *CRAZY* Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling!! Muddy, silly, kinda pointless but all-in-all very entertaining!!

The view of Coopers' Hill from the bottom

The view down from about half way down... Lovely Cotswold countryside (well the bits you can see in between the cloud and rain).

What an interesting way to survey the quality of the turf...

See, I was definitely there (being sensible).

And lastly, the rose I fell in love with... I've never been a fan of roses (mainly because in Aus you need so many pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilisers, careful chemistry tests, Myers-Briggs tests etc. etc. for roses to grow). BUT these ones (at the Pricknash Abbey) were absolutely gorgeous and I can only describe their smell as citrus cheesecake.... mmmmm heavenly (divine intervention perhaps?)...

Ok, enough about the flowers already - Introducing my first You Tube video - the original looks better on my computer screen but eh, I guess that's the compromise for being able to put it on the web...

And for those of you who have about 6 minutes to spare, I highly recommend viewing this crazy Aussie girl telling Americans how to 'not think - just eat'...

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Mon, 28 May 2007 18:34:00 +0000

Hello on this rainy London-day. Just back from the Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling - a very strange tradition where people throw themselves off a very steep hill after a cheese that's just been thrown off the hill... Photos to follow and I have a brilliant video (might join U-tube or something as I don't think this blog can handle it - hint to Blogger adminstrators!!).

The kiwis and aussies always do well apparently - for example the last three years before this one, the same kiwi girl won the ladies' race. And today, in the ladies', 2 kiwis came 1st and 2nd and an aussie girl, who happens to be a friend of the Hammersmith house people (she used to live there), came 3rd. A lot of it's luck I think but for people to win years in a row must mean something. Maybe it's just that no one crazier than them have turned up. One guy absolutely flew down the hill - flying through the air and spinning over and over, it was amazing to watch - a human torpedo. A couple of injuries - one dreadlocked bloke (aussie I think) managed to knock himself out for a few minutes and a Japanese bloke that won the cheese did his ankle.

Oh, in other news, I'm (UNFORTUNATELY as you'll see) leaving beautiful old Chiswick on the west-side tomorrow. It's a suburb with small parks, trees, expensive houses, sweet little cafes, and trendy shops. Oh and a mix of Mercs, Jeeps, and Range Rovers getting around.... AND soon-to-be added: ROBBIE WILLIAMS!!! Dammit!! Why am I leaving now?!!

Oh well, I'm sure I'll be near some other celebrities in Camberwell - maybe Snoop Dogg's cronies....

Ok, so that's about it for now. Back to work tomorrow... It's been quite enjoyable working for Defra but in my opinion, there are quite a few major inefficiency issues! But the people that work in my area are all quite friendly (if reserved) and I'm looking forward to participating in the Defra Sports Day on June 15th. I'm a member of the mixed volleyball team and of course the drinking team. Should be a great day - I'm in charge of buying the matching shirts for the uniforms though, so had better get onto it!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:45:00 +0000

A couple of days ago I got all dressed up in a school uniform (care of the local 2nd hand shop with £1 ties) and went along with Rez and her friends (mainly from the Hammersmith house) to celebrate her birthday.

It was a relatively fun night - except for some earlybird departures, some weird emotions experienced by a few at the sight of so many hundred people in school uniforms, and my slipping over and going A-over-T every 5 minutes. (I had some massive bruises in many parts...)

Anyway, enough talk - check out the photos!!

Some good old-fashioned handball! Ahh the memories

The attendees (or should I say 'returning students')... plus Rez (on the bottom right) with her giant blowup willy - c'mon we all need one of those!!!

Some posing in between some pre-Disco drinks

Claire and Maree

On the tube to the Forum (Kentish Town)

Staying awake...?

Being naughty!...

Getting down...

And getting lost among all the other identicals!...

I've had an absolute ball with the guys at the Hammersmith house - Rez, Az, Maree, Bridge, Leigh, Robyn, Dylan, Taafs you've all been amazing!! Thanks for your room Leah :)

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Sat, 19 May 2007 21:33:00 +0000

My review of the first theatre event I attended with Lei, Jane & Tamsin on Friday (18/05).

After being in london for a few months I decided it was time to partake in a bout of theatre going - to really warm me up to the idea I organised three other girlfriends to see 'The thing about Men'. What a brilliant, joyous time it provided to us busy girls at the end of stressful weeks (one had just resigned from her work, one is a press officer for a company so is constantly on the go, and the other had been designing and selling carpet all week). We met at Angel tube and walked the quick 5 minutes up Upper St in search of local fare. A boystrous 'hello gorgeous... best pizza and pasta in town?' from the young lad at La Forchetta and we were up for some quick Italian. Total bill of £32 for 4 including one round of drinks saw us on our way.

The Kings Head is a small theatre, pleasingly ramshackle to the eye, but obviously steeped in history. With photos of the famous who have performed (including Dame Judy Dench) and the stage lights above the bar we felt instantly transported to an eccentric and expressive placce. The ticket lady with fluorescent hair inspired a remark from one of my lady friends 'I bet she's from Camden'... We were told that we would be in the first group that entered when the bell above the bar rang, and we could take in drinks (hey hey, my kind of place). Number one mistake - not asking whether there was interval or loos close by (the front-of house ones were underground and smelly). So we all opted for no drinking while being entertained. And entertained we were!

I never could have thought that 5 people on a stage could entertain so cleverly, brilliantly and hilariously. With a believable story-line of high-flyers having affairs and housewives feeling neglected as a backdrop, the true gems of the show were revealed - along with some moral highlights along the way.

Jokes, great directing, light-on but effective saxophone, flute, piano and guitar, and quite a few camp moments brought the audience up. And an over-the-top French restauranteur is always a good source of laughs.

The ending song 'you can't have it all' brought us back to earth with a sadness that the show was over. What a great night!!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Sat, 12 May 2007 17:04:00 +0000

I guess it makes sense that in such a big area as London (metropolis population ~7.5mill) there are going to be lots of loonies, fraudsters and criminals. It has been a weird week really. I'm writing this from a lovely room in west London that I was originally going to rent until the time I left for Brissie in August...

However, the day I was due to move in I got a text saying that the landlord had decided the room renter wasn't allowed to sublet (with the majority of my stuff already in the room mind, coz I'd moved it over the weekend). Now this was very strange considering I'd been told about the room months before and the landlord had even asked for a reference from my work to move in... Anyway, the short of it is that the landlord is apparently some 70+ year-old crazy Indian who is known for making snap decisions, yelling at his tenants, and then forgetting about the whole thing the next day.

So here I am... Still here, a sitting duck, just trying to find another place to move into, with nice housemates and a NORMAL situation... Don't really know if you get that here though... It's Saturday night right? Why am I blogging? Because I was due to leave in ten minutes to meet Lei in at Oxford Circus for dinner and then we're going to her friend's birthday party in some fancy club... But I've just been told we'll have to catch up a bit later because Lei and her housemates are having a house meeting - I dont' know the full story yet but it involves one housemate, who's currently (allegedly) in Ireland for the weekend, leaving his room suspiciously empty, and missing possessions from other housemates...

What is with this crazy place?

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:48:00 +0000

Some more photos from Seville....
The busker. One of those guys who plays then expects a euro in return... He was pretty good though and obliged me with a photo :)

Beautiful Plaza de España. There is a tiled alcove named after each of the provinces of Spain. According to a few websites, people like to get their photos taken in front of their home province. I did notice as I started off at 'Z' and had to keep moving up the alphabet as keen Spaniards identified their provinces!

These ladies were looking fantastic for the festival and they asked me to film them riding around in the carriage with their video camera. After I'd done my service they offered me a pic in their carriage. Lovely!

Yes, they do make a good photo!

The festival grounds - lovely lights and many dressed up people parading around.

More parading... lookin gorgeous...

More of the awesome rides. Is that a kangaroo??

Another pic from the Alcazar.

Alcazar garden... I really wished I lived here!

The owner of the bar 'Glassy' and Pat, a Canadian bloke I met lost in the streets with me...

The boulevard around Cadiz, a town south of Seville, on the coast. Goes on forever, you can walk by the sea for hours...

Getting some sun :)

The lovely cathedral in Cadiz. Not sure of the red ramp though. I had a lovely coffee and toast deal from Ben and Jerry's here while listening to a guy play the guitar and sing... Loved it.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Wed, 02 May 2007 14:05:00 +0000

Hola from Seville, Spain. Yep, another go at a country I´ve been to before (c´mon it was about 6 months ago!).

Got a few days off work so booked a cheap Ryan Air flight (just under £60 (~$150AUD) return) to Seville. Right in time for a flamenco festival called ´la Feria de Abril´. Its a festival held in an area of Seville called Feria and it´s in April... Anyway, lots of drinking and eating and people all dressed up heading to marquees to dance flamenco and drink and eat... and drink some more. I booked a pension from the airport (30€/nt) and headed into town. My Spanish is non-existant and English-speakers in Seville seem to be too, so it was great that an American student showed me where to go when I got off the bus.

It was lovely and warm and I was enjoying the thought of sunshine for a few days!!! Miguel and I walked past the cathedral and the gates to the Alcazar - the Spanish Royal Residence reputed for its fabulous gardens - it was a beautiful walk punctuated by the click clack of horses hooves on stone from the numerous carriages getting around.

Found my pension (eventually - believe me, the streets here are as challenging, if not more so, than Venice!) and then found a cafe for some lunch.

I reminisced about Greece as I ordered calamari and had a couple of Coca Colas in the gorgeous sunshine. The waiter apparently liked me because he had various conversations with me in Spanish while I said 'non ablo Espanol' - who knows what he said to me! He presented me with a courting gift of a bowl of olives, which I non-graciously asked the price of. 'Free for you..' Then with questions about whether I had a phone, I discovered what the time was and that I had better be on my way...

Back to my cute single room, glass of wine, fresh strawberries and then BLISS - had a nap! I´m in the land of seistea after all right? Then being Friday night it was out to La Feria to check out the dancers. And what a wonderful atmosphere! There were hundreds of rides too and frankly I will never look at the Ekka again and think it´s any good in that department!

After a late night and a couple of lovely red wine and lemonade mixes I eventually found my pension. A brilliant sleep-in and it was time to wander some more around Seville and I went back out to the flamenco festival on Saturday night.

I tried a few more conversations with people with a Spanish 'hello... do you speak English'... but I didn't get very far. If I didn't know before that I like my own company - I definitely know now. I am even good at making myself laugh... But let's not go there (no matter how I explain it, I can see the smiling and slow nodding with a 'rightio then..' going on right now).

On Sunday I lined up for ages to go into the Alcazar. I overheard some 20-something girls speaking English in front of me so I piped up with a super-cool 'so I heard you speaking English...'. They must've forgiven me for any weird behaviour they noticed because we ended up getting on like a house on fire. Lucy grew up in 'a little village north of London'... 'yes?? which one' - ABBOTS LANGLEY it turned out to be... Where I stayed with my great-aunt. Crazy.. And Sharmila lives in Turnham Green - where I am going to live!! How very coincidental!

Right, so onto the cultural information - the Alcazar is the royal residence for the Spanish royals when they stay in Seville. I bet they must get annoyed with the 100s of tourists checking out their mosaics, gardens and fountains though! It really is a lovely place.

More pics coming....

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 18:00:00 +0000

As I posted in my last entry, I was living in a shack in the back yard of an Aussie/Kiwi house. Well that was only short-term and I luckily managed to find a double bed room in a 6-bedroom terrace house in Hammersmith (a suburb on the west-side, quite trendy) for a month. Went round to the house and met a few flatmates and it was all good. Except I had a week in between having to leave the Loveshack and moving into this Hammersmith house. So a friend at work offered a mattress on his living room floor for the week in between.

It was fine until I started getting wierd vibes off his (male) flatmate and basically it all turned to s*%t one night when the flatmate came home from the pub and swore at me and accused me of various things (such as that I wasn´t going to move out when agreed, that I was a bitch etc. etc.) and threatened me. It was all very strange and frankly uncalled for! As you can imagine I got quite upset... He was completely irrational (and since then, I´ve decided that Kiwi blokes with strange personalities, who smoke way too much weed, really should be avoided(. He was an a*$%)*e!!

Anyway, luckily, before that weekend I´d sussed out with Lei and Johnno if I could have their room if things went pear-shaped (call me a psychic!)... So after being abused, I dashed off to their place with my backpack at 12:30am - there was no way I was staying in the flat with that fruit-loop.

Lei´s flatmate Kevin welcomed me in (Lei and Johnno were in Norway) and I had a great weekend sharing a few beers and relaxing with Kevin, away from the nutcase. That was the long weekend of Easter - I think I spent about 5 hours on the tube going backwards and forwards taking stuff from the east (where Lei and Johnno live) to the west (Hammersmith house) and then back to the south (nutcase kiwi´s place) to get more stuff - and backwards and forwards.

No - I don´t actually have that much stuff... But it basically takes me two trips - I now have a doonah (duvet in the rest of the world other than Australia) and pillows and a few more clothes for work and food etc...

You know, it´s really common for people to doss (take a spare bed/couch and pay a small fee - eg. 5 pound/night) and crash on mate´s floors etc. when new to London. Most people are pretty understanding when it comes to searching for a place to live. But it´s hard work moving from place to place. Although I guess I've saved a bit of $$ while dossing, it is temporary living, it's hard to get into a routine and it takes a lot of time to find the next house!

So now just trying to find a place to call (temporary) home from May - at the end of my month in Hammersmith. Hoping to get a place for the 3mths I have left before heading back to Australia.

Work is going well and I´m managing to save a bit of money too which is nice. Going to head to Spain for a bit of a holiday at the end of April hopefully. There´s a flamenco festival on in Seville.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:16:00 +0000

So have now been working with Defra for about 5 weeks. It's all going well and I'm learning a lot about Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies - yep mad cow disease and scrapie... Don't think this will help me in Australia though as luckily our sheep and cattle are free from these diseases. But - I'm having fun redoing the science part of the website and doing helping manage the 100 or so research projects going on around Europe.

Happy Easter to you all!!!
I'm spending the weekend in London. I originally had thought I'd go away but with all the to-ing and fro-ing with me moving house and working lots and not really having access to internet etc. I gave up on that idea. And it's a lovely weekend in London with the clear and sunny weather anyway. Hung out today at Clapham Common - a huge park with numerous soccer balls, footballs, hacky sacks, frisbees being flung about the place in between people enjoying beer refreshments - and tomorrow I'm going to check out the famous Oxford vs Cambridge rowing race on the Thames.

There's a lot to see in London and below are heaps of photos of what I've been up to. Leilani (who's gone to Norway for the long weekend with JT) and I have spent quite a bit of time checking out some of the key attractions.

One weekend we decided to check out the famous Borough Markets - gourmet to the hilt!!!!!
The food available to taste-test is divine.

Those pig heads are great ads for the brilliant pork and apple sauce rolls we had for lunch.

After the markets, Lei and I walked across Westminster Bridge and went our separate ways. Lucky (?!!) for me, I stumbled right into the NZ Waitangi Day celebrations in Parliament Square - thousands of people in black streaming together, beers in hand.
The view from Westminster bridge of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. I walk past these two famous and beautiful landmarks on my way to work everyday. Now I reckon that is VERY cool!!!

Westminster Abbey

Waitangi Day celebrations... Looks all very patriotic but despite their numbers the kiwis forgot to do their scheduled haka at 4pm...

After that I headed to beautiful St James's Park. There were lots of people enjoying the sunshine and the squirrels!!
Neat trick!

Awwww cutie with a nut.

The walkway in St James'

So Waitangi day was on the 6th Feb and two days later London (and Hertfordshire) got blanketed with snow.
View from my window in Herfordshire

Some VERY industrious people made a whole family of snow..people... Anyway, I loved the fact that the biggest one had a mug in his hand and he was a good 8ft tall!

Lei and I checked out the Notting Hill markets one day too. It was very busy and we didn't buy anything, except for food :)
Lots of London souveniers available - I particularly like the women's undies that say 'Mind the Gap'

Did someone say 'home-baked goodies'????

After the markets, Lei and I went for a walk in Kensington Palace Gardens and I got up close and very personal with a particularly familiar swan. Nothing about me being a human seemed to scare him at all.
My training with old and partially blind chooks meant that I wasn't worried when he beaked skin instead of bread

Kensington Palace gates.

So after living in Hertfordshire, and being looked after so well, it was time for me to move out :) Through my UQ mate Andrew (remember I met him on the roof of the backpackers in Athens in August 06?? Yes, of course you remember...) I moved into a household of New Zealanders (Andrew's mates) and one Aussie in good ol' Acton (a suburb famous for having 'antipodeans'). I was what they call a dosser - someone who crashes on a couch, or in my case, in the backyard cubby house.
Inside the Loveshack!! (Being woken up one Sunday morning after too many beers with the B52s rendition was quite entertaining... .well, for the first couple of times it played)

And now, if you've managed to get through all the above - you're now in the PARTYING IN LONDON PHOTOS part of the blog.
At Acton's own (brilliant) Redback Tavern!!! Jenna and some other kiwis - complete with BATMAN!!!

And there's Andrew, Mike, Rose, Danni and Jenna (in the hat)

The brilliant band... And the drummer was cute, let me tell you...

And, St Patricks Day. We ended up watching lots of rugby first and then playing around at the Walkabout in the centre of town. Jenna inherited a beard and I think some people took my 'kiss me I'm Irish' tiara literally.

????

A few other things I've been up to:
- Joined Lei, Lei's friend, Johnno and his rugby mates to watch the Ireland vs England game and then went bowling. We were all searched at the door and there was a cover charge to get in.
- Went to a Defra quiz night, BYO. I added absolutely nothing to the scores except for getting Austin 'Danger' Powers' middle name
- beers, beers, and more beers after work with many different people from Defra. I was even at the pub the night one of the girls broke another girls' nose - accidently of course.

And the lucky last photos... Random yes, but it was all part of the performer's hand puppet-beatboxing plan at a comedy night I went to with Johnno (complete with a Lurch-like character, 1930s-style poetry and a voluptuous glove-stripper) .

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 12:31:00 +0000

Wow, it's been 2 weeks since my last post. And that's because I've been doing more 'normal life' things rather than 'exciting travel/exploration' things. I've been applying for jobs, going to interviews, catching lots of buses and trains, opening a bank account, and spending time on the internet searching about all this stuff. Oh and experiencing snow again!!! My gosh, I love the stuff! Last Thursday saw a huge dumping of snow in London and where I am, in Abbots Langley there were kids playing everywhere (they all had the day off school). I've been spending quite a bit of time in Watford using the internet and checking out the shops but I've also been into London quite a bit for job interviews etc. and to see Lei and Johnno in Walthamstow.

London really is a great city!! I had an interview in the city for DEFRA (Dept of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and after that I went for a wander through Monopoly land. Yep, Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall, Piccadilly... Quite surreal.

London is one of those cities whose reputation precedes it of course. There is a huge range of classes and so many cultures. There is a lot to do and a lot of people doing lots!!!! So many people out and about on the streets means it's buzzing most of the time.

I think a lot about Europe is about the people - those living today but also the history of the peoples that have inhabited these lands. And the UK has a strong history also but the present is constantly changing. London is DEFINITELY a city where you can be really, really happy as there is so much going on and so many people to meet but it can also be the most unhappiest place if you are lonely and without much money.

I don't know where I will be in a few weeks time. It's possible I'll be back in Brisbane but really, at this stage, I think I'm going to give the London lifestyle a go. I am currently negotiating for a job, so we will see.

Love to you all! Keep in touch! I will be back!!! (In August at the latest :))
(note, will update with pics soon)

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 12:44:00 +0000

Judith and Garry own a house in a town near the coast called Pickering. They go there every few weekends or so and I was pretty lucky to be at their place on one of those weekends. Pickering is a nice little town that gets quite a few tourists on weekends, particularly taking a train-ride on the old railway, to the coast.
Main street of Pickering - quiet though on a Sunday (& the trains weren't running anyway).

On Saturday I took a train into York - a very important town in England's history and home of the biggest Gothic Minster in Northern Europe. The local Celtics were conquered by the Roman Empire in AD71 and York (then called 'Eboracum') became the centre of the huge area of Constantine's reign and buildings were located at the location of the current York Minster (I'll get onto that in a second). Constantine backed christianity so Eboracum became a Christian city. After the Romans left in the 5th Century, The Anglo-Saxons arrived and because the Saxon king (Edwin) decided to marry a Christian lady, he had to be baptised, thus a church was built (at the site of the current minster) in 627. It was built as a huge minster from 1220 and officially finished in 1472 after the push from Richard II to make York the capital of England. Unfortunately it's been burned a few times with lots of work to restore it. But despite all this history (and because of it!) - it is a gorgeous, historical building. I really loved the stained glass windows - and the glass makers apparently had a lot of free-reign: there's all sorts of crazy stories of monkey doctors and strange animals in the glass. I spent a few hours walking around and also attended Evensong to listen to the church choir.

The western-side of the Minster (wikipedia of course has some great info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_Minster)

After walking around the Minster, and the city walls, I walked through the Shambles - the old cobblestone shops and saw some great artwork by the guy in the photo below. I bought a few of his prints - ink drawings of the Minster and York...

What the?

On Sunday Judith, Garry and I (oh and Zeb the dog) drove to the coast to walk part of the Cleveland Way leaving from Robin Hood's Bay to Whitby. It was a wild and windy day and unluckily for us, Judith and I walked into the wind pretty well the whole way! It is a lovely open walk - not a tree in sight most of the way (which no doubt adds to the wind-blown feeling!).
Sheltering from the wind for lunch.

At the end of the walk.

Me almost being blown off a rock overlooking the sea (no, I have not become obese since hitting the UK).

We made it to Whitby and walked around the town there for a little bit. Such a lovely little town (despite being over-run with tourists!) with old Abbey ruins and lots of fishing boats. We spotted the statue of James Cook - complete with seagull on head. He's here because he set off to discover Australia from Whitby!

View of the Abbey

Statue of Captain Cook.

After our walk it was back to Pickering to pack up the house and then back to Tintwistle. I drove back to London on Monday afternoon. Was quite a good drive until I got stuck going the wrong way on the M25 ring-road and ended up in Barnet - about 10 miles to the east of Abbots Langley!!! I remembered the hire-car man telling me about some congestion zone charge that London has and as I kept getting closer and closer to London, the fear was building. He said it was a £50 charge!!! Jesus! However, I've since found out it's like £10 for a day if you don't pre-pay. Talk about stress!! After lots of loud swearing I pulled into a servo to get directions. I finally got out of there and made it back to Margaret's. We then went out for dinner, which was lovely! And off to the interview with Contiki in the morning.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:34:00 +0000

Wednesday I spent quite a bit of time chilling out and doing computer work. In between watching 'Angel' on Sky and playing with Zeb (the dog). I also built a snowman - with the obligatory carrot for a nose and coal pieces for eyes. I think this one was much nicer than my blizzard one. I like the plant-pot top hat the best! Anyway, it was a good bit of exercise rolling that huge ball for the bottom half of his body - I couldn't push it anymore.

That night we went for brilliant Sri Lankan and Indian for dinner in Manchester. Quite fitting that we found the only Sri Lankan restaurant in the city - Judith and Garry are going there soon to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.
Garry, Judith and I salivating before we tuck in.

Ahhh such tasty food!!

You may not notice but I have links down the side of this blog. Well I've added a new one for converting timezones (Time Zone Converter). I wish I had checked with this great website earlier in the week, as unfortunately I got my days mixed up for a telephone interview from Queensland. I thought it was Thursday night here, but it was Thursday morning in Aus therefore Wednesday night here. So I missed the calls as we went out for our Indian and we got home a bit later than we'd hoped, so by the time I got a call on my mobile, the interview panel couldn't reschedule... We'll see if they are forgiving enough to offer me another telephone interview. Otherwise it's back to the drawing board for job applications...

Thursday I went for a drive over Snake Pass towards a little town called Edale where the Moors for the Future information centre is. They're doing some great work maintaining, researching, and regenerating the UK's biggest national park. Of particular interest is the extensive heather fields - Britain has 75% of the world's remaining heather moorlands, and most of it is in the Peak District National Park. I had a chat to a few of the blokes that work there about their aerial photography, helicopter drops to re-seed areas, track condition surveys and the differences between national park problems in Australia and the UK. It was enjoyable. But the drive around the lovely scenery was really great too. I cannot wait to go back to this area (where the Pennine Trail starts) to do some walking on a future holiday.

Snake Pass view back down to Glossop.

A couple of pics of the countryside driving to Edale.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 08:10:00 +0000

After getting back to the cottage Monday lunchtime, Garry went back to work and I joined him on his reservior checks. In the afternoon all three of us went sledging. It really was great fun! The plastic sled was a bit warped though which meant that despite my skill in steering, the sled consistently went off course to the right. Garry could control it well however (experience). Of course I have to include these pics :)
Me and Judith ready to go.

Some of the onlookers who got excited when we pulled up in the Landrover.

Garry (very excited to be out in the snow again) and Judith.

Off and away.

I have been for a few walks around the reservior too and it really is a beautiful area. I have really enjoyed hearing the crunch of snow and feeling the fresh air on my face. And, yes, walking around in temps between 1-3 degrees means that the breezes are very fresh. Lucky I'm not standing still out there. It has given me time to contemplate life and my travels. And (back to more immediate and entertaining concerns) I've spotted grouse and various types of tits, singing blackbirds and robins and I chased after a pheasant. Other critters include squirrels, rabbits, and of course sheep :)

This reservior system is one of the oldest in England, I believe, and incorporates 5 different dams. There is also a small hydroelectric plant. Currently the dams are quite full but due to some leaks they are having to let quite a bit of the water go, to keep the levels down until they fix the leaks. Apparently there aren't really any fish in these that require fish ladders (but there are perch and trout and a few others to keep the fishers interested). There is also a sailing club that runs in summer on one of the reserviors.
View across Valehouse reservior.

The afternoon lighting has been so lovely - soft, pink light.

Gratuitous snow photos...