U Can't Touch This!

As most of you know I have a (slight) fetish for tacky 80's tunes and cheesy early 90's classics, so it will come as no suprise that the venue for my last bash in London was at Reflex, an 80's inspired club in St. Paul's. As soon as my aussie mates heard where we going it quickly became apparent that everyone was keen to get dressed up for the occassion so the fluro pink leg warmers, side ponytails and bright blue eyeshadow came out and we made a night of it. Amazingly when we had a search around the high street it was like we had actually been teleported back to the eighties. Lou and I paid a visit to TopShop and were instanly accosted by lycra leggings in a mulitude of colours, followed by hot pink bangles, leg warmers and massive earrings (which I bought of course), lime green parachute jackets and a varying array of fluro everything. I was worried that we were going to look a little OTT but it seems that the fashion cycle had landed firmly back in 1985.

Outfits aside, we all met up at TGI Friday's in Covent Garden for dinner before hand which was pretty cool. I was going to k-i-l-l the receptionist there though, she was a total biatch. Things ended up sorting themselves out though and we almost all managed to get a seat and some food (sorry Em and Dan!). A highlight of the dinner was getting happy birthday sung to me by the ENTIRE restaurant and a card trick performed by our (cute) waiter Drew. I even got to keep the queen of hearts card from the trick, awww!

After dinner I had a rendevous with the Hoff who kindly greeted me at the entrance to Reflex, it was all about me after all... That was followed by a little bit of drinking and a ridiculous amount of dancing. My eighties moves got a thorough workout, actually that's how I dance normally so really my normal dance moves got a workout. What does that say about me I wonder? Anyway, I had a wicked night with all my friends and even ended up wearing a multi-coloured mullet (which I consequently wore home on the night bus) and an I love 80's red tshirt (thanks Chet and Lou). Thanks to everyone that made an appearance, it meant a lot to me and I hope that you are all still living it large in London.

Dips, Claire and Lou looking hot.

Even though they were late Kristy, Hayley, Stacy, Carlissa and Jo made it worth the wait.

Though slightly embarrassing I have to admit it was pretty cool getting Happy Birthday sung to me by the entire restaurant. I felt very special.

Me and the Hoff.

I am thinking that perhaps my career as a rock 'n roll goddess may need some fine tuning...

Snow!

One of the really cool things about my time in London was actually seeing proper snow. We had a little bit early on in the season which was a bit pissy but then had about 15cms later on which was so wicked. For someone who has never seen snow (hard to believe for some) and then to have it snowing in my backyard was just brilliant. I even got snowed on and had to tromp through it on my way to work. I didn't get to make a snowman but I did make a snowball which I was ridiculously excited about.

The view from my bedroom window.

Me with my first snowball ever.

Australia v's Denmark

I have been saying for ages that I wanted to get out and see more live sport so the Australian v's Denmark friendly at Shepherd's Bush was the perfect excuse for a football oriented night out. Armed with my boxing kangaroo flag, two english friends and a swedish one, I headed out to the 'stadium' (it was pretty small so I don't know if it even really qualifies as a stadium) at SheBu to watch the Aussie's battle it out. Considering that we are meant to be renowned for our sporting prowess as well as our strong support for our sporting teams, the night came up rather short. First of all we sucked at the football (I mean how hard can it be?!) and secondly the Danish crowd was way louder than the Aussies. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that their team actually knew the rules to the game or perhaps it was because I was sitting in the Danish fans section. Either way we lost and I have to say I think that we should stick to cricket...

Lou was a great Aussie supporter on the night. She even had the 'C'mon Australia' thing going on. Maybe with a bit more work on the accent she could almost pass for an australian...

The score says it all...

The London Eye

It only took me a year to do but i finally made it to the London Eye. Amazingly we went on a really nice clear blue day with the downside of that being that everyone in London thought they would do the same thing as us. The lines were amazingly long and snaked up and down and around but suprisingly we actually got on to the Eye pretty quickly. Considering that everything else in London is a bit dodgy and at often time excrutiatingly slow, I have to say that it would have to be one of the best run things in the entire city. It was like some covert military operation or something!

Long queues aside the ride itself was great. It was so interesting getting a perspective of where everything is when you have a bird's eye view. I always imagined that the Eye faced north but it actually faces west. I think that I imagined that the river just ran in a straight line and that the southbank was south of the Eye but it lies to the East. It kind of throws you off a bit but it was cool all the same. The clear day meant that we had a great view and got some really good photos. If you are in London in it well worth the money.

Edinburgh

As one last hurrah before heading back home to Oz Lou and I headed to Edinburg for a long weekend. We stayed in a hostel at Haymarket which was near the old part of town, close to the castle and some nice pubs and restaurants. The first toursty thing that we did was the castle which had a really nice view of the city. It was like an entire little village within the castle walls complete with halls, dungoens, kitchens, lookouts and cobble stone passages.

Some of the other things that we did were the Edinburgh Dungeons (tacky but funny); a haunted vaults tour of the old town (Iwas absolutely packing it!) and a day trip out to Glasgow, Loch Lomond and Stirling Castle (William Wallace country). We had a cool old Scottish guy as a guide who was very passionate about his country, had an orange beard and wore tartan pants - he kind of reminded me of grounds-keeper Willy from The Simpsons!

We went out a few nights while we were there and met some Aussie guys on Oz Day (which we spent at a little Aussie pub near our hostel) and ended up in some really dodgy nightclub which was also right next to our hostel. We stumbled out of the club at some silly hour in the morning wondering how the hell we were going to get home but amazingly our hostel ended up being just across the road! Nice work girls!

The last night we were there we ended up drinking three bottles of Rose which was completely unplanned and consequently spent the next day extremely hung over. To make matter worse we had to drag ourselves from the hostel (my suitcase kept getting the speed wobbles and flipping over) down to the bus stop, get on the bus to the airport, sit on the plane for however long and then catch the tube home. I don't think we uttered a single coherent sentence to each other we were hurting that badly. Most communications consisted of the odd grunt and pained looks with the occassional panicked glance towards the nearest exit. Needless to say, i vowed to not drink for a while after that day!

Me at a section of the Royal Mile with the castle up the top of the road and the old palace at the other end.

Lou and I at the castle. Yes, it was cold.

The castle.

The two of us on Oz day drinking Coopers Dry Ale.

Me at Stirling Castle. Apparently there was a big fight near the river that William Wallace (ie: Braveheart) was involved in a few years back.

I-am-sterdam

As a 'Welcome to London' trip for Kristy, the three of us decided that Amsterdam was the place to go. So, armed with some winter woollies, umbrellas and strict instructions to steer clear of the citiy's 'coffee shops' the three of us boarded our ryan air flight bound for The 'Dam. After what felt like 30 seconds of flight time (everything is just so close!) we landed at the airport and got the train to the city. Our hostel "The Flying Pig" was situated about 10 mins walk from the main part of town , right along the edge of the main park. Whilst the weather was pretty terrible for the weekend we still got out and about and saw the main sights including the Van Gogh museum (OH MY GOD!! So cool!) which was near the 'I Am Sterdam" sign which features frequently in our happy snaps, the Anne Frank Museum (very sobering) and some of the markets in town.

As usual the trip was centred around eating and drinking with delicacies such as poffretjies (small dutch pancakes, not too sure about the spelling) and my first steak in about a year. We spent a night at the Grasshopper pub near the Dam Straat and consumed huge steaks along with copious amounts of red wine. We ended up making friends with our waiter who could speak about five languages and the italian guys sitting next to us. Kristy excercised her Spanish skills and we ended up having a bizarre english / italian / spanish / french conversation with them. By the end of the night we were all hammered and ended up in a McDonalds sharing a Happy Meal - dodgy brothers!! Another element to the night was visiting the city's red light district and seeing one of the famous live shows which was probably the most boring thing that I have ever seen - I would honestly rather watch paint dry but I guess that I would have been disappointed if I didn't go. Still, it was just soooooooo dull!

Some other interesting aspects about the city were the canals that divide up the city, the narrow buildings that are on really crazy angles and look like they are going to fall over and the millions of bicycles in the city. Once you add in the almost silent trams and people and cars and it is a bit of a sensory overload when you first get there. Once you get used to it it is fine but I felt like I needed eyes in the back of my head when I first arrived!

Enjoying some pints and potato skins at Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam.

The Van Gogh Museum which chronicled the life of Vincent Van Gogh. It was amazing to actually see some of his works in real life.

The I am sterdam sign outside the Van Gogh museum. There was a group of Italian tourists in front of us that insisted on taking a multitude of photos from every single angle with every combination of the different people - grrrr...

Poffretjies from a little cafe by one of the many canals - so small but so delicious!

The random Italians at the Grasshopper.

Staff Christmas Party

As is the case with most end of year celebrations, our staff Christmas party which was held at Sway bar in Covent Garden had its fair share of drunken shennanigans. Despite my firm resolve not to have any shots I do remember having at least one Jager shot and copious amounts of Woo Woo's and possibly some beers thrown in there somewhere for good measure. The rough timeline for the night went something like this: beers at the Cambridge pub as part of the tresure hunt, arrival at the venue, the meal, secret santa gift swap, staff awards presentation and then the serious drinking began. I can't quite remember what time I left Sway but I have a strong vision of everyone jumping in to those pedicab things and being left on the sidewalk with Al. Then after wandering around for what felt like about an hour, I got my big toe smashed by John Danby who thought that it would be a good idea to try and pick me up whilst being exceptionally intoxicated. The result was John landing on my toe and me ending up in hospital the next day getting my toe x-rayed. Still I was the only carnage for the night which can only be a good thing!

Some of the girls were told that we should start a girl band... hmmm, I wonder what we would be called, the Fabulous Five, Girls R Us, the Unanimis Five... the possibilities (and my talent for coming up with catchy band names) are endless...

This is why we all got so hammered!

Somerset

After talking about going camping with Lou, Dips and Rich and deciding that the fact that the girls (ie Lou and Dips) couldn't plug their hairdryers and straightening irons in to a tree, we took the soft option and decided that a nice, warm (and electricity powered) country cottage was a much better idea. Whilst it took a while to get there (we got lost a few times) it was worth the drive. The cottage itself was really nice and new and had a great kitchen and lounge area and that warm, cosy feeling that you can only seem to get in the country. The surrounding area was also really pretty with lots of greenery and cows strolling about the paddocks. We visited a few of the local villages and towns as well though the only two names that I can remember are Wells and Nunney though we did go to Cheddar Gorge and some place where there was like Wookies or something. No, hang on I think that Wookies are from Star Wars, uh maybe like a Yeti or something. Clearly I have no idea. Anyway, the trip was lovely and I got to see Stonehenge on the way back home which was a bonus though it was six quid to get on the other side of the fence which we all decided was a total rip, hence why my photos have a fence in the background.

Oktoberfest 2006

Try and imagine 1 million people wearing leiderhosen and frauline dress things along with 14 massive beer halls coupled with never ending beer, fried mystery meat on sticks, chicken schnitzel rolls, roller coasters, dodgem cars and crazy german songs (and people) and you will have some inlking as to the craziness that is Oktoberfest. Set in Munich, Germany the festival runs for around two weeks and I went to the opening week which starts at the end of September. On the first day, the mayor tapped the first keg at noon which symbolised the beginning of the festival and the start of some crazy shennanigans. After thinking that there was no way that I was going to be able to down a stein (around 1 litre of beer) by myself, by the end of the week I was chugging through them like a seasoned drinker (which I guess I was by that stage!) I ended up meeting up with two girls that I went to primary school with which was a blast from the past and ended up hanging out with them and their group of mates which was really cool. Kylie Humber was there as well so I got to hang out with her at the start of the week for a few beverages. Highlights of the eight week tour included the festival and having my first stein; visiting Dacchau (going to a concentration camp in the middle of a beer festival is very sobering though); seeing Neuchwanstein castle and visiting various little towns in Germany and Austria. Lowlights included seeing the 100 club (that still makes my stomach churn) and the eighteen hour coach journey done with a monster hang over, very bad idea.

Home sweet home

Ok, so it is kind of hot and humid and it has been raining a lot but still, it is good to be home. I have been feeling a little 'out of sorts' since I have been back though and I can't quite seem to put my finger on what it is. Perhaps it has something to do with the whole jetlag thing; maybe it is the fact that I had about 7 hours sleep in the 72 hour lead up to getting on a 22 hour flight or perhaps it's because of the fact that now I am home it feels like I never left. Whatever the reason, it has inspired to reminisce about my year in the UK and so I am going to update my blog. My internet connection is really slow though so chances are it will be another year before I manage to upload all my stuff but at least it is a move in the right direction.

And on a rather sentimental note I just want to say thanks to all the people that I have met over the past year that made my trip so wonderful. Dips, Lou and Em it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you all, thanks for being such stars; Kristy and Hayley, girls it has been wicked being able to share London with you and good luck for all that is yet to come; to the rest of the work crew, thanks for all of the laughs, I will be sure to join you at the Eagle next time I am in London so that we can get hammered off one drink. Kym, good luck for the rest of your time in London I hope that you enjoy it; Lawsy, all the best it has been such good fun getting to know you better and I still can't quite believe just how slack we have been with catching up and to everyone else who has made the past year such a brilliant one thanks a bunch and I hope to see you at some point in the not too distant future.

English Lesson 1.01

For those of you who have any english friends you will know that they speak a little, well, strange to be quite frank. I have learnt the following things since I have been here -

• Pluggers are not called thongs over here. Thongs are g-strings and what we call thongs are actually flip flops. Geddit?
• 'Hiya, you alright?' means 'How are you?' I have been here six months and still feel like a nob saying 'You alright?' when they clearly are 'alright' so I just go with the standard Aussie 'How's it going?' Yes, I am shamefully Australian
• 'Rubbish' means bad / crap / not good etc. Ie: the english football team is rubbish.
• 'Quality' is the opposite of rubbish
• 'Muppet' is idiot / nob / stupid etc. Ie: the Australian goal keeper against Croatia is a muppet.
• 'Minging' is ugly / bad etc. Kind of the same as rubbish but you tend to use it to describe unfortunate looking people
• A doona is a duvet
• Ice blocks / ice creams are lollies and lollies are sweets

I am sure that there are heaps more things but that is just a brief venture into the joys of living abroad. I am proud to say that I have been spreading the good word and teaching my workmates some quality Aussie words like skirt, sook and manky. I am yet to convince them of the virtues of Vegemite though. I am sure that they will come around eventually... Oh and if you are wondering about the pictures, Rich bought an England hat for Dipti's birthday (which coincidentally coincided with the world cup) and has become a bit of a running joke around the office. I thought as this post was about England that it was kind of fitting.

Refresh Boat Party

It was quite uncanny that I seem to have spent so much time doing river cruises in the past few weeks. I had been saying for ages that I had wanted to do a boat trip down the Thames and then all of a sudden I did like three in as many weeks. Bizarre! Anyhoo, the latest boat trip that I did was on Saturday - the night after The Cat Empire gig. If anyone comes over to London and for those of you who are currently in London, I would recommend doing a river cruise. It is a really great way to see the city and a whole new perspective of the city. We ended up going all the way past Greenwich and the Thames barrier which was pretty cool. The tunes were pretty cool too - I am not normally into oonce-oonce kind of stuff but it was really hardcore and surprisingly good to dance to. One of my mates from work (who as of this weekend will also be my housemate) boyfriend DJ's and so she was helping to organise it. I think there is another one in a few months that co-incides with London fireworks so I will definitely be up for that. The photos that I have included are Lou, Hayley and I on the boat in front of Tower Bridge, Hayley and I, my ticket, and the dance floor. As you can probably tell, the roof of the dance floor was quite low. There were some more guys that were unfortunately a little tall for the dance floor and had to float about in the middle section where there was an oval bit cut out of the roof. I felt sorry for the poor guys but at the same time it was really quite amusing!

The Cat Empire

I went to see The Cat Empire at the Shepherd's Bush on Friday night (4th August) with Hayley and two of her mates, Jo and Stacey from work. Aaron (Kristy's mate that we met just before we left Oz) was there too and so was Laura and her two house mates Brendan and Pete so there actually ended up being quite a decent sized crew of us there. Went to the WalkAbout before the gig (think Friday's on a Saturday night crossed with the Down Under bar and you get the idea) for a few brewskies. Saw the drummer from TCE - Hayley nearly had a coronary (admittedly she was the only groupie among us) and headed next door for the gig at around 8'ish (I think!) The gig was wicked - anyone who has seen these guys live will know how much they rock. The She Bu Empire is a great venue too. We had standing tix so we had a good view of the stage but could also look back up into the rest of the venue - there are three levels / balconies and all of them were packed which made a pretty cool view from where we were. Highlights included wearing Krispy Kreme hats and just dancing my ass off, lowlights included being elbowed in the face by an angry tall man who had an angry short girlfriend. Oh and we ended up in Chiswick at the end of the night as we got on the wrong night bus. Where is Chiswick I hear you ask? Good question really... The photos that I have included are of Hayley, Jo and I with our tix, the view back up into the venue, us with our Krispy Kreme hats on and a cool, psychadelic pic of Hayley and I.

Picnic in the Park

As the weather has been so brilliant over here I decided that it might be a nice idea to have a picnic in Regent's Park to take advantage of the sunshine. Having to give everyone directions over the phone to a place that I had never been to was slightly interesting but we all made it to the designated meeting spot in the end. We ended up having enough food for about three small countries (anyone who has shared a meal with Liz and I will know that we do tend to over-cater for things) and ran around like idiots playing football and frisbee. Well, I was running around like an idiot and everyone else just looked normal! I also managed to nearly decapitate a small child with my lack of Frisbee throwing skills. I swear it was the wind! The park itself is pretty nice - I haven't really had much of a look around but there is heaps of open space and there are lakes that you can go boating in (that is another adventure waiting to be had.) A 'highlight' of the day was watching a hairy Italian man run around playing football in his green underwear. Oh dear... The pics I have included are of 'us' (Andy, Rich, Donna, Lou, Hayley and Kym) and my Frisbee throwing prowess. I have also put in the flyer that I made up for the event.

Staff Boat Party

I am blessed to be working in an office that strongly believes that staff outings are integral to the workings of a modern office and essential to staff bonding. Our latest social event was a boat party on the Thames. Not only did we get to finish work early, we got coach driven down to the pier (though it was insanely hot on the coach - yes, people it does get hot in London) and we also got free food and drinks all night with a wicked view of London from the vantage point of the deck of a boat. What more can one ask for really?! It was a really fun night though I think that the highlight of the night would have to be being shown up on the dance floor by a certain Russian colleague. I think that I could show a few of you some pretty uh, blush-worthy dance moves involving a pole. Need I say more? The pics that I have included are of a view of Westminster Abbey from the Thames, a gorgeous sunset over Tower Bridge, a group of freakily stunning women (yes, I work with some hotties!) and the boat's dancefloor. Note the pole in the foreground.

The Return of the Brian Doll

Before I left Oz I sneakily 'borrowed' the resident office mascot otherwise known as Fred Gafney or more affectionately The Brian Doll (due to its uncanny resemblence to none other than our retail manager Brian.) Now, I left Australia about ooh six months and am only just now getting around to posting up some Brian Doll pics but in my defence he is a slighlty cumbersome fellow to be carrying about in one's handbag (and yes, I did get some 'Uh, you have a little manin bag' comments from the lovely security folks at the National History Museum.) Lawsy and I did a few treks around ye old London (in the rain no less) and have some slightly dodgy Fred photos for you to feast your collective eyes on. Enjoy! (Yes, I am telling you to enjoy looking at a freaky looking plastic doll in front of several well know London tourist attractions. Strange but true!)