Paul and Mel's UK

I can see clearly now ...

2008-05-09T15:30:00.000-07:00

Phew! What a week. It's been crazy-busy for me this week. Monday was a public holiday so Paul and I went with S&M to a gorgeous country pub for lunch. The weather has been beautiful so we got to sit outside in the beer garden eating our meals, watching kids play and bumble bees fly.

On Tues I was in Edinburgh and Wed and Thur in Copenhagen. Whirlwind tours.

Today I spent the morning in the office and then in the afternoon got my Lasik Eye Surgery done. The surgery was at 2:30pm and it's now almost just midnight and I can see just fine. The surgery itself didn't hurt, it was just very wierd. The clamp on my eyes was extremely uncomfortable and it was a little disconcerting having a suction thingy put on my eye, but other than that, it was just fine.

I went straight to sleep after getting home (with these gorgeous eye goggles on so I don't bump my eyes during the sleep and dislodge me unhealed, unattached cornea) and now I have drops that I need to put in for the next 7 days. But waa laa! That's it. All done.

It's too early to tell but so far ... I recommend it.

M & A's Awesome Austrian Adventure

2008-05-05T01:49:00.000-07:00

Pics live here.

Enjoy.

The pitter patter of tiny feet

2008-05-04T01:19:00.000-07:00

And before you get too excited (mum!) it's not exactly what you think.

We have issues. Serious serious issues in our little house in Southfields. Paul and I are reasonably house-proud individuals, me more so than him and at the moment we're feeling kinda yucky about living here.

As you know, we live on the first floor and in the loft of a converted Victorian house and up until recently we've really loved living here. It's not the coolest place on the block - think blue carpet, yellow walls, daggy rust-red couch and green tiles in the kitchen - but it's clean and homely and big enough for us to hang out in all day without bumping into each other (important!).

But lately things haven't been so nice. Paul found a mushroom growing in our entrance way and it turns out we've got dry rot under the floor boards on the ground level. This is going to be fixed by someone coming in, pulling up all the floorboards in the entry and getting a humidifier in to dry up underneath. This could take weeks and meanwhile we will have an area at the entrance to our house that is completely exposed to the ground underneath - not ideal.

Well, it gets worse. I was in the kitchen last Sunday afternoon making a cup of tea when I noticed that the floor looked kinda swollen and when you stepped on it, it was squishy. I called Paul in (interrupted him playing his music - not happy) to confirm my fears and he proceeded to pull the dishwasher and washing machine out from underneath the bench top to see what was leaking - we found a bit of water but to our absolute horror also found MOUSE POO!

Eeooow!

So we spent the best part of last Sunday evening setting poison, plugging up holes with steel wool, bleaching everything we could possibly think of that may have come into contact with ungodly rodents and dry-heaving!

The landlord came to visit on Friday to investigate and the flooring under our lino in the kitchen is saturated (I don't think they connected the dishwasher properly) so the lino has been ripped up and we are attempting to dry out the floor. Our kitchen now looks like this ... The plastic bags around the dishwasher and washing machine are Paul's attempt at trying to ensure that mousey-mousey doesn't venture into our territory (he heard something squeaking last night so said poison clearly hasn't kicked in yet).

There goes my cooking mojo.

Things I learnt along the way

2008-04-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

... from Vienna to Zurich.

VIENNA

That two Australians living in the UK + an Israeli and a Norwegian, both studying pre-med in Budapest + dodgy karaoke in a bar outside of Vienna makes for one hell of a fun evening;
That I really need to take singing lessons and that corona does not make for better vocal chords;
That when Annemarie, my partner-in-travelling-crime drinks wine and corona in one evening she resorts to doing ballet and serenading Austrian boys;
That there must be really big chickens in Vienna as the schnitzels were all the size of dinner plates;
That there are no kangaroos in Austria;
If a Viennese violinist plays Mozart too hard on his violin the strings on his bow snap;
Citybikes are the coolest way to get around;
Bratwursts taste better when eaten with mustard and Austrian beer;
That I actually like the taste of beer, but only when drinking it in German speaking countries;
If you leave your boyfriend's camera hanging behind the toilet door of a museum it WILL get stolen;
That when your boyfriend tells you that you should have deleted the clip of him and you dancing to 'Soulja Boy' from the memory card prior to taking his camera to Austria you should listen to him. M&P on YouTube dancing to Soulja Boy does not make for good resume material;
Viennese women have a thing for dying their hair fanta-orange. Why, oh why?
That there are the bones of dead people piled up high underneath the square outside St Stephens church and if you pay €4.00 you can actually go underground and see them. Way cool;
Vienna has a lottalotta palaces and museums.

SALZBURG

Someone has a lot of time on their hands to persevere with hand blowing and painting all of these eggs;
That there really are boys named Chip from America who are in the marines and fly aeroplanes as inspired by Top Gun;
That when they filmed the Sound of Music, they shot the last scenes first and the first scenes last, so the kids look older at the beginning of the movie than they do at the end;
Mozart's balls taste like chocolate truffle and nuts;
Playing limited edition Sesame Street Uno in a beer hall drinking beer made by monks is an awesome way to spend an evening;
Hostels aren't necessarily a bad place to stay;
Austrian special breakfast = scrambled eggs, bacon, herbs, onions and tomatoes and is the breakfast of champions;
That Edelweiss is a very elusive flower;

INNSBRUCK

The Golden Roof is just that, a building with a golden roof on it;
If you climb to the top of a mountain in the snow whilst not wearing waterproof clothing you get very very wet;
Women look weird smoking pipes;
That if we had of pre-booked all of our train travel it could have saved us an absolute fortune;
There's a really nice woman in one of the Schnapps shops whose one goal is to have you taste every single schnapps flavour regardless of the consequences;
Supermarkets in Austria sell the BEST food;
Bert and Ernie also conquered the mountain;
If you look hard enough you will find that elusive edelweiss pin (alas, not the flower);
Notting Hill and the Mornington Penninsula are not the only places that paint their buildings in bright colours;

ZURICH

That everyone is stylish to boot (except the teenagers);
That the train from Innsbruck to Zurich snakes through the most gorgeous countryside I have ever seen;
That if you wait just one extra day you'd have a whole shop of Edelweiss pins to choose from;
That teenagers dress really badly and stand around in the main train station drinking alco-pops making eyes at each other;
That all toddlers should have a wooden bicycle without pedals - beats training wheels any day;
That eating Malaysian food after a week of Austrian food is pure heaven;
That there are some good looking men in Switzerland;
That everyone who lives in Zurich should feel blessed that they are living in a gorgeous, cosmopolitan, stylish, modern city with stunning mountains in their backyard and a gorgeous lake in their front yard;
That little Japanese girls snore louder than me;
That not everyone who works on reception in hostels is cool

And;

That partner-in-travelling-crime-Annemarie is the best travelling buddy!

Catch up

2008-04-05T06:02:00.000-07:00

Just on stuff.

Paul's been working in Frankfurt this week. He emailed me on Tuesday to say that his hotel was in the red-light district.

I've had a middle ear infection all week so have been dizzier than my usual self the past couple of days.

Paul went out on a big night with his friend MD last night which he hasn't done in a while. He came home feeling a little worse for wear with lamb kebab in hand! Lamb kebab at 1am in the morning apparently = good night!

I had a consultation for Lasik eye surgery yesterday. I've booked in to get my eyes lasered on 9 May. I've committed to £2000! Crikey!

Lazy bloody Saturday today. Liking it though. Started the day with bacon, eggs, french toast and spaghetti, followed by reading The Times. Now I'm glued to the Mac and Paul's glued to his keyboard.

Speaking of Paul being glued to his keyboard. Let me just fill you in on the tunes that are blasting out of his headphones. John Farnham! Followed by some AC/DC. Who is this man I'm sharing my life with? John Farnham for Pete's sake. That's embarrassing.

Paul's currently on the phone to MB in Aus. And I can only hear his side of the conversation and I'm hearing ... "Only as old as the woman you feel policy?" I'm not even going to ask about that one. ; )

Oh, and speaking of Paul. Despite his lack of posting recently; he swears he still loves you. Honest. He's just a lazy git. Oops. Did I just say that? Sorry PP.

Only 6 days to go before I'm off to Austria for a holiday with my dear Annemarie. We're in Vienna for four nights and will be going to Mozart's Orchestra, followed by three nights in Salzburg and the Sound of Music Tour, one night in lovely Innsbruck and then one night in Zurich. It's going to be fantastic!

Then four weeks after that Paul, MD, SG, MS and TH and I are all off to Malta for a long weekend.

Sunday lunch tomorrow afternoon at the Alma with MS and the lovely Laura from New York.

Gave some lub to the Kelvinator via text today as she was feeling a little sad. Lub to Kell via text = "Kellee is like a stained glass window. She sparkles and shines when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in her true beauty is revealed because she has light from within." Can't claim that as my own unfortunately. But it's sweet huh?

That's about it at the moment. Not much else to report.

Dubai ... that is the answer

2008-03-22T02:34:00.000-07:00

I'm going to Dubai!

Sometime in July (practically the worst time to start a stint in Dubai given that the temperatures get up to around 55 degrees) I will be heading off to the big new man made city in the desert for an indefinite period of time to start my new job (just an upgrade of the old one in the same company).

It's so exciting! I'm very trepidatious as I love living in London and a move to Dubai is one step to going back home to Australia. I am not 100% sure if I'm ready to leave London just yet, but hey, I can always come back huh?

And what about Paul you ask? Well, he's pretty mobile. We've got a couple of options for him but we're not going to think about that until it gets much closer to the time. However, a stint as house-husband living it up in 5 star luxury in Dubai is not off the cards. Gosh, can you imagine how much he'd love that? As long as I come home to a clean house and dinner ... I don't mind what he does. ;-)

Dubai or not Dubai? That is the question.

2008-02-29T06:11:00.000-08:00

A wise man once said, "When you get to a fork in the road, take it."

I've been offered a fantastic opportunity to head up an HR dept in Dubai ... that tax free man made haven in the middle of a vast desert. Do I take it?

It's a fast-paced, exciting, contradictory city with opportunities abound. However; I would imagine it would also be a very lonely place. A transient city. A melting-pot of morals, values, cultures and religions.

I spent the last week there. It's a city that doesn't understand the concept of equal opportunities. Am I being a cock-eyed optimist to think that I could walk into this role and change the mentality of people and stamp out discrimination that has been occurring for decades before me? And, what if it can't be done? Do I become an HR professional who just accepts discrimination because "that's the way it's done around here." Is that me? Would I sell out?

Am I being too dramatic? I DON'T KNOW! Am I thinking too much into it? MAYBE!

Facebook craziness

2008-02-19T13:57:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to put an RSS feed on my facebook profile. This post is just a test of that.

Fingers crossed!

Iced Volvo

2008-02-18T13:37:00.001-08:00

It's uber-cold here at the moment and everything is icing up everywhere, including Hand-me-down Helga our decidedly comfy, decidedly daggy gold Volvo circa 1986. She's lovely isn't she? MD and SG gave her to us when they bought a fabulous new car. Helga's comfy and reliable, has heated seats, bounces along the road with squishy suspension and has moss growing around the edge of her sunroof.

But we love her. I struggle to park her, but we still love her. A to B and all that! Gas guzzling monster!

Great Britain Rulez OK

2008-02-17T13:08:00.001-08:00

MS and SM kicked our butts.

Oh well, never mind. Better luck next time. Sorry fellow Aussies, we didn't do you proud. But ... we'll be back. Those smug Great Brits will be eating their words very soon. Don't you worry!

Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

2008-02-17T04:14:00.001-08:00

On the back of my very first tennis lesson yesterday (I know, at the age of 34) Paul and I have been chosen to represent Australia in the inaugural Wii Olympics against Great Britain.

Our friends (the Great British) MS and SM will be our sorry opponents in this battle of agility, speed, nimbleness and sobriety (SM has cunningly offered to supply the appletinis for this event - don't worry SM, Paul and I have our wits about us!) in what may prove to be a weary battle right to the very end ... of the day.

Opening ceremony will be at 2pm this afternoon and our photographer will be on hand to catch all the highlights of the day. Stay tuned for sporting updates as they happen.

Aussie Aussie Aussie. Oi Oi Oi.

... And a Festastic New Year

2008-01-12T02:28:00.000-08:00

Marrakesh and Fes were so different to anything we have experienced in our lives before. It's so colourful and vibrant with sights and smells and sounds overloading your senses every minute of the day.

When we weren't being harassed for money or to buy their wares the locals were so friendly and accommodating. And the children were just gorgeous. The Riads we stayed in were so opulent and intricate in their design. The food we ate was rich in flavour, colour and spices. The souks we visited were full of amazing handicrafts and local fare.

Being on the edge of the Sahara desert it was surprisingly green with imposing snowcapped mountains snaking their way across the entire country.

The tannery in Fes with it's hand-dyed leather bags, jackets, shoes and wallets just screamed for you to buy something. I picked up some shoes and a gorgeous red leather jacket at a bargain price.

We spent Christmas day in the Atlas mountains and New Years Eve day in Middle Atlas and exploring the many villages around Fes.

We saw mosques, carcasses being dried out on rooftops, leather being tanned by hand, children learning nursery rhymes in their kindergarten, wood being intricately carved, argan nuts being ground into oil, a Berber family in their home, monkeys in the Cedar Forest, boys playing football with a ball of string, women carrying water on their heads to their homes for washing, a 70 year old Berber woman serving tea to an endless lines of guests in her traditional cave house, donkeys and camels and a lot of henna hand tattooing.

It was quite amazing. Click here for more pictures.

Merry Marrakesh

2007-12-22T13:49:00.001-08:00

We won't be in London on Christmas day. Paul, MS and I are flying out tomorrow for 10 nights in Morocco. First 6 in Marrakesh followed by a few nights in Fez - including New Year's Eve.

I'm quite excited and not quite sure what to expect. The chairman of the Co. I work for went there last year for Christmas, so the other day I asked him for some hot tips. The first thing he said was, "I hope you like snakes, because they are everywhere."

Not much scares me ... except fast cars, as SNAKES! Since his hot tip, I've been dreaming of snakes all night long. Nightmares actually. The other morning I woke up with a yelp which also woke Paul up. When he asked me what was wrong I said in a sleepy panic, "I was just bitten by a snake!"

Anyway, another Christmas away from home. They are getting harder and harder. Wishing you all a Merry Merry Christmas. Be safe.

M&P x

Dancefloor cropdusters - Subtle Butt required

2007-12-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

We had our work Christmas party last night which was an absolute blast. A great venue in Central London with circus acts, great food, lots of people dressed up to the nines and hours and hours of dancing. Here's some snaps of the evening: Party Pics

But ... what is it with packed dancefloors and cropdusters? So many times I was on the dancefloor getting my groove on, as I do, when a god-awful rotten egg waft would come my way from some stanky person. And of course - with all the movement on the dancefloor - no one is ever going to pick who it is. Gross!

I think I should start marketing these nifty little numbers to nightclubs. They could sell them in the toilets as vending machines. What do you think?

Gettin' to know Mrs E (aka Mum)

2007-12-08T16:19:00.000-08:00

SG sent this little quiz around the other day. I'm not normally one to forward on jokes or chain emails or junk like that, but these little quizzes, quite frankly, do it for me. So I did as asked, erased SG's answers, filled in my own and bcc'd it on to people in my yahoo address book.

My mum was probably one of the last people I expected to respond. But to my delight, she did. And (I hope you're not too embarrassed now mum because one of the things that you said you didn't like about yourself was your shyness - which I have seen dissipate quite quickly after a couple of wine coolers!) I thought I would copy and paste it into this blog:

Here's what she said: (I think it's pretty cool!). My comments are in blue;

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? yes my mum (My nana's name was a quadruple barrelled, Jean Jones Johnson Burns)

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Cried the other day watching a movie

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? its ok (typical old style cursive that puts modern handwriting to shame)

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCH MEAT? ham

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? yes

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I hope so

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? sometimes. (Oh yes she does!)

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? no (but she did para-sail in bali and had a lot of fun at Mt Druitt Waterworks!)

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL? muesli with fruit

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? no

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? no

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM? take it or leave it (I don't think I've ever seen mum eat ice cream)

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? their eyes

15. RED OR PINK? Pink. (although, you never wear pink. Come to think of it, never wear red either).

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? shy (like I said - after wine ... dissipates quite quickly)

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? daughter, son, mum & dad (she's only human. I'm extremely missable!)

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? yes

19. WHAT COLOUR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? shorty pj's no shoes (mum, you shoulda lied here! Shorty pj's?)

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? pork chop with salad ("Pork chopsch and apple schauce" a line from Peter from the Brady Bunch - Paul would say here ... "Smell of an oily rag." Private joke)

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? nothing

22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOUR WOULD YOU BE? crimson

23. FAVOURITE SMELLS? fresh cut grass, roses, oil burners (she missed out jasmine, I know she loves jasmine)

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Liz (that's my cousin)

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? love her she is my daughter (that's me!)

26. FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH? netball, outdoor bowls, tennis (mum was a kick ass netball player - never did rub off onto me).

27. HAIR COLOUR? light brown

28. EYE COLOUR? Blue

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? no

30. FAVOURITE FOOD? chinese

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? happy endings

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Watch so many they all blur into one eventually.

33. WHAT COLOUR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? green pj top (let's hope for fashion sake that it matches the shorty pj bottoms mum)

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer

35. HUGS OR KISSES? hugs

36. FAVOURITE DESSERT? pavlova, cheese cake

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No idea

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No idea

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? none at the moment.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? plain grey

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? Heart beat

42. FAVOURITE SOUND? birds (oh - and those wind chimes you have up everywhere!)

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? beatles

44. WHAT IS THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Scotland to Australia. New Zealand

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? no (Mum can sex chickens!)

46. WHAT IRRITATES YOU MOST? people who are loud

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? All

While the cat's away - Part II

2007-11-27T12:43:00.000-08:00

Part I of this post can be found here.Have you ever thought that as you get older you become more and more like your mother or your father? Paul says he sees a lot of my mum in me sometimes. I don't necessarily agree, but then again he probably sees me differently than how I see myself.

Paul on the other hand, he is well aware of his own personality traits and the things that make him (as TMcC once called him - which to this day he hasn't forgotten) "eccentric." One of them is his sudden desire to germinate plants from tiny little seeds into what you see above.

It all started off with a trip to Kew Gardens. We picked up a very small propagator and some packets of seeds; a venus flytrap, poppies, pansies, a peanut plant, a banana plant and one other that we can't remember. The banana plant grew like crazy and the venus flytrap has the cutest little teeth.

But from this, Paul was hooked. So one Sunday he dragged me to Homebase to pick up an even bigger, more sophisticated propagator and even more seeds. Among these were cactus seeds and a daffodil bulb. From when we first met Paul used to tell me how much his dad loved growing cacti at home. Apparently they had loads of them. He used to tell me how gorgeous they looked once a year when they flowered. He never really showed an interest in gardening at all. Until now.

Last weekend, now that we have a car (thanks S&M - that's another post) we were at Homebase again and Paul couldn't resist picking up a freestanding shelving unit-cum-greenhouse which now takes pride of place on our tiny little balcony next to the outdoor table and bbq. The first thing Paul does when he gets home from his week long stint in Dublin (after kissing me hello) is go and and check on his little plants.

Oh ... he's such an eccentric and the apple, from what I hear really hasn't fallen far from the tree - his sisters will attest to that. They get great joy in teasing him about how much he looks and sounds like Dad.

Oh ... we crack ourselves up

2007-11-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the large bags of MS (talk about double entendre) I now own a Macbook. Anyhoo, this is what happens you combine some two-bit effects with a built in webcam. Christ, I hope this is not one of things that seems really funny at the time and then is somewhat less than.

Pitch black

2007-11-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

Mel and I got talking today and I realised that I have seen two 30+ degree days in the last two years.

This is truly depressing.

Almost makes you want to go out and by a sun lamp. Almost.

Next summer there will be no mucking around - it will be sunny and it will be hot. None of this mid-September shoulder season malarkey. I want to run the risk of getting burned to a crisp. I want to wade in the water because I will die if I don't. I want to live in my sunnies.

Coincidentally, it is 32 degrees in Melbourne today.

Sometimes, it just fits

2007-11-10T05:38:00.001-08:00

I recently went to Brussels with my sister, MS. Brussels does not have the reputation of being a must see, European hot spot but I have to tell you, I really liked it.

It is easy to get around, everybody speaks English - along with seven other languages - and everyone was accommodating and friendly. Well, with the one exception of one ticket seller guy at one of the metro stations (you know who you are).

Anyway, aside from sampling a wide range of beers and immersing myself in the local culture - well, as much as a whistle stop tour on the obligatory double decker tour bus will allow, of course - I got jiggy with it with a couple of locals. Kudos to whomever can tell me what the hell that massive, colourful concoction of a triangular stringed instrument is.

Here's two thumbs up for Brussels

3rd time around

2007-10-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

We're coming into our third winter in England.

Growing up in Sydney I spent my summer holidays at the local swimming pool. Summers were long and hot and humid with fantastically amazing thunderstorms. Some nights after it had been over 45 degrees for days on end, it would be so hot in our little fibro house with no air-conditioning and only one ceiling fan in the lounge room that we would sleep in the lounge with the front door and all the windows wide open - just to get some respite.

The tar on the road outside our house would bubble and stick to the bottom of our thongs. We'd stick a hose on the trampoline at our next door neighbours house and make an impromptu mini swimming pool. We'd get the slip'n'slide out in the backyard and lather it up with soap and slide around everywhere on it. We'd take the inners of truck tyres and styro-foam boards down to the river after school and brave the moving sands, submerged logs and deep holes and paddle around in the not-so-murky waters of the Hawkesbury River, watching the brave teenage boys jump off the bridge and swing from ropes attached to trees into the water.

I'd wear the same swimming cozzie day after day and be as brown as a berry by the end of summer with freckles all over my nose and natural blonde streaks in my brown hair.

We'd play outside until midnight on the weekends around the streets with the rest of the kids in the neighbourhood whilst our parents sat outside on the front lawns in folding chairs drinking beers and West Coast coolers listening to Tom Jones and Foster and Allen.

It seemed to last forever.

Ah, summertime in Sydney in the 80's.

But I digress.

You would think with all this summertime nostalgia that I would be dreading the cold, grey, misty and dreary England winters. But on the contrary. It's just starting to get cold again now. Yesterday for the first time I wore gloves, scarf and a winter coat to work. Last week I wore knee-high boots for the first time. My heating has been on every day for the past week. But as the darkness comes earlier and the frost settles thicker there is a slight feeling of anticipation in the air.

Winter in London is gorgeous. I can't wait to wake up in the morning, open the blind on our loft window to find that snow has piled up on it overnight. I'm really looking forward to deciding which ice-skating rink I'm going to try out this winter. I can't wait to feel all cosy and rugged up with layers of wool and gloves and boots and scarf and a hat whilst walking outside with the air all crisp and the sun shining to coming home to a warm centrally heated house and hot chocolate!

I love not feeling guilty about staying indoors and watching cooking shows and recorded tv shows and dvds all day long then cooking a big hearty dinner with gourmet sausages and mashed potato and gravy and drinking loads of red wine by candlelight.

They've starting putting up the beginning of the Christmas lights on Oxford Street already. And the lights in Regent St will go up soon and they are also just gorgeous!

It's such a nice time of year. My only wish is that, come the end of February when it's meant to be kicking over into spring that it gets real warm, real fast! Because there's nothing worse than a winter that won't go away.

Can I resist the urge to be juvenile?

2007-10-21T03:29:00.000-07:00

Nope, probably not. But I will type this post with as much restraint as I can possibly muster.

Paul and his sister M went to Brussels for the weekend this weekend. So, in my time at home alone I thought I'd go to London Zoo. I've wanted to go for ages and Paul's really not keen so I thought this was the perfect opportunity. I was very disappointed actually. Growing up, I had been to Taronga Zoo in Sydney so many times and it's one of my favourite places. London Zoo pales in comparison, they would have half the amount of animals that Taronga has and the ones that they did have weren't that interesting. With the exception of the meercats, otters and monkeys. I spent ages watching them.

They have this Meet the Monkeys enclosure that you walk through which is in with the monkeys. You are literally face to face with them. And, if there wasn't a keeper in the enclosure with us watching our every move I so would have reached out to touch. One cheeky little monkey spied a little girl eating a cookie (her stupid mother clearly didn't read the signs) and jumped down and swiped it out of her hand. It was hilarious. Anyway, here's the cheeky monkey and here are the funny little meercats.

Okay, okay ... juvenility has gotten the best of me. Regardless of how mature and grown up and responsible one is, there are two things that will guarantee to make you giggle. Poo and farts. Always. Regardless. Get a bunch of grown ups in a room (generally with some wine) and eventually the conversation will at some point turn to poo or farts. It's just the way things are.

Anyway, I was in the gorilla viewing enclosure and this is what he did!And ... a bunch of about 20 people all stood there and watched. Mainly all adults. All making "Eewww gross," noises. A little bit of vomit even came up into my mouth. But still, I watched and I took photos. So of course, I had to share it with you ... all of you. I'm a child! But that's just how my mind works.

I'm going now to do something grown up, like make the bed or do some washing.

Corsican and Sardinian Reflections

2007-10-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

Things I loved about our Corsican cycle tour:

Getting my tongue around French phrases and actually being able to string sentences together in French and be understood by the locals;
Cycling around the rugged coastline and overlooking the crystal waters 100's of metres below;
The triumph of finally getting to the top of that hill or mountain knowing that we would have kilometres of downhill coasting to come with the wind in our hair;
Discovering a gorgeous waterside restaurant in St Florent;
Cycling through a mountainous desert and standing at the top of the mountains seeing just how far we had come;
Staying in a remote mountain-top village called Piaggola in a B&B and sharing dinner with the owners and Belgian fellow travellers and having interesting conversations in broken English, Belgian, French and Italian;
Meeting a Belgian man who himself had cycled Corsica 27 years earlier on his own carrying tents and all luggage on his bicycle;
Stopping in small villages to eat picnic lunches of mortadella and cheese baguettes;
Meeting French locals and English travellers in a funky bar in Ile Rousse and sharing Australian experiences with them;
The friendly and helpful locals who were always greeting us with a warm smile and didn't mind our struggling broken attempt at the French language;
Stopping off at roadside wineries and sampling and purchasing gorgeous Corsican muscats and rose';
The welcoming smile on local's faces when we told them we were Australian and not British;
Getting to see the sites up close and personal. Smell the smells of the villages, flora and fauna and really feeling like you are seeing the island at ground level without any barriers;
Arriving at a destination after 30, 40 or 60kms of cycling to a long shower, afternoon nap and big big hearty dinner

And not so fun:

Getting an awful heat rash after the first day of cycling due to sunscreen and sweat and feeling like a leper for 3 days afterwards;
Numb bum - although our padded gel seat covers did work wonders;
Undulating hills. Sometimes more up than down;
Stifling heat in 2 star hotel rooms without air conditioning
Last chance Saloon town of Ponte Leccia and our grumpy B&B owner;
Bad transfer timings at the end of the tour, costing us up to €300 in taxis and car rental costs;
Discovering the gorgeous port town of Bonifacio right at the end of the tour and not getting a chance to explore it further.

Things I loved about our time in Alghero, Sardinia:

Arriving to discover that we had been upgraded to a nice new hotel as opposed to a B&B free of charge due to overbooking at the B&B, a welcome break after 5 days of gruelling cycling;
Discovering the gorgeous medieval old town with it's labyrinth of cobbled laneways;
Lazy on the stunning beach of Lazzaretto;
Quaffing yummy local Sardinian red wine night after night;
The restaurants and the gorgeous food and mine and Paul's competition of oneupmanship when it came to picking restaurants;
Riding on the back of a Habana scooter;
Catching up on sleep and relaxation;
Stunning sunsets through ominous cloud formations;
Friendly/helpful Italians;
Cheese and salami for breakfast each day;
Catching up on some reading;
BBC World News and MTV in our hotel room - a godsend during the bad weather;
Picking up leather jackets and demin jeans at bargain prices.

And not so fun:

Only two days of sunshine for the duration of the 6 day stay;
The stench of seaweed wafting through the town at high tide (rotten eggs!);
Paying €35 to get our laundry done;
Missing out on the boat tour to the renowned Neptunes Grotto due to bad weather and choppy seas;
Wearing the same clothes four days in a row due to packing for summer weather as opposed to cooler autumn weather;
Paying €1 to pee in unsanitary public toilets;
The end of another summer holiday and facing the reality of the daily grind again and the post holiday blues that come with it.

Here's a link to more pics on my Flickr page: Corsica/Sardinia Holiday Snaps

Greetings from sunny Sardinia

2007-09-30T02:30:00.001-07:00

Well, sunny for two days of our holiday anyway. We spent 5 days in Sardinia and unfortunately 3 of them were cold, windy and rainy. But we did manage to make the most of the two sunny days. One of them by lazing on this gorgeous white sand and turquoise watered beach!

While the cat's away

2007-09-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

The mouse will air his dirty little secrets ...

Paul is not particularly tidy. He'll be the first to admit to this. For those who have worked with him and endured the mess of his desk, his living accommodation, if he didn't have me and his conscience on his case, would be much much worse. But all is not what it seems with Paul. And these photos are living proof. His dirty little secret.We are leaving for our two week holiday early Saturday morning and because Paul is working away all week in Dublin he packed his bag last Sunday. What you see above is almost his entire holiday clothing and essentials, including beach towel packed away in this reasonably small bag. I was a little sneaky and unpacked his bag for you so you could see the contents laid out on the floor.

Is this crazy-anal or what? I'm so so impressed. Who is this man? Where's my Paul?

Wardrobe Malfunction x 2

2007-09-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

We've had a pretty bad time of it this week with a massive Tube strike going on. Our normal line is down so I have had to make my way via Clapham Junction to get to work. This involves a walk to a bus stop, 15 minute bus journey, 10 minute train ride, 10 minute tube ride and then a 10 minute walk to the office.

Today it was rather gloomy out so I decided to wear my bright yellow polka dot flouncy sun dress to brighten up my already dysfunctional day. Cute dress huh? And even cute shoes.

Well ... I hopped off the bus at Clapham Junction, walked through the station, turnstiles, the tunnel and then halfway up the stairs when I felt fabric brushing up against my upper thigh at the back and a rather tell-tale breeze on my butt. After careful (but not too obvious) examination I found that my bright yellow polka dot flouncy sun dress was tucked right up near my underwear! I instantly went into the following modes:

Panic mode:
"Dammit! How long has my butt been hanging out?"
"Cripes! Am I wearing my nice underwear?"

Survival mode:
"Stay calm Mel, don't make eye contact with anyone, just slowly remove your dress from your underwear and continue casually walking up the stairs to the platform."

Relief mode:
"Good underwear ... check! Deflected eye contact ... check. Managed not to miss a step ... check!"

Seriously though, it mustn't have been that much of an event at Clapham Junction station. No one applauded or offered me any money for the peepshow. Commuters just went about their journey as if nothing had happened. I was almost disappointed. Almost tempted to do it again, just to see if I got a reaction second time around.

Then walking from the station to my office the strap on my shoe broke so the remainder of my journey was spent hobbling into the office with one hand holding a broken shoe and the other trying to hold my flouncy skirt down. Classy!