Monoply Board Pub Crawl

I have one word for this day - messy. That pretty much sums it up I think. The day started at 10:30 am on Saturday and Hayley and I found ourselves at home on Sunday morning at around 2 ish. Needless to say there are a few blurry bits but overall it was quite fun. I did manage to lose my jacket, break my sunglasses and lost my weekly tube ticket (about$50 worth!) Highlights included running up the longest escalators in London (believe me they are long) and wearing some guys afro around. I can't really remember which Monopoly points we went to - I think that Whitechapel, King's Cross Station and Leicester Square were in there but I can;t be too sure! Lots of the night is about fuzzy around the edges - I am not in any hurry to do it again any time soon!

Give me your comments!

I don't know if it is just that no one has figured out to how to post comments or you just can't be bothered but I would love it if everyone / someone could put comments onto my blog (things like how fabulous, smart, funny etc I am...) To post a comment click on the comments link that is underneath each entry, write a message in the box thing, choose other as identity, type your name and hit publish. Liv and Liz said that no one was putting comments on their site so I figure that maybe no one knows how to do it! Oh, and if anyone has any challenges (see www.lizandliv.blogspot.com for the big challenge that I gave to them) that they want me to undertake feel free to dare me as you see fit (nothing too nasty please!).

So tired, so so tired...

I have spent what feels like an eternity updating my blog tonight and my eyes are about to drop out. I still have some more stuff to add so be sure to check it out again soon. Enjoy!

Some more cool touristy places

I had to include these pics as although I am not in them (sad I know), the buildings really are quite gorgeus. The British Museum is huge and has some really cool displays. It is a little weird though, seeing all of these amazing artefacts from all over the world in a museum in London. The Great Court is really cool and there is a fantastic library full of amazing books. The Natural History Museum is also really good - they have lots of kid oriented displays but I still found them really interesting (I am a big kid though). I have also checked out the VNA (Victoria and Albert) Museum which is just around the corner which once I can figure my way around it I have no doubt that it will be good too. I think that I will probably go back to all of these to have a better look around.

Pic 1) The gorgeous Great Court at the British Museum
Pic 2) The Natural History Museum in South Kensington

The work crew

As those of you I have been in contact will know, I have been working in an office just off Oxford Street. It is a pretty cool place to work and everyone there is really nice. I got to go on a staff social night, ten pin bowling and impressed my fellow team mates so much with my bowling prowess that I earnt myself the very Australian nickname of 'Warney'. These guys pretty much all follow the 'beer drinking is a National sport' motto so Friday afternoons are usually spent down the pub with copious pints of beer - a great way to bond with new people if ever there was one! The work that I have been doing has been admin / office type work but I have moved departments and have been doing some design stuff which has been really cool. I have been looking for a new job for when this one finished and will keep you all posted.
Pic 1) Me with Sofia and the company directors (leading by example!)
Pic 2) Go Team Warney! The lads and I strike our best 'We are a kick-arse bowling team' pose

Brighton beach

The only other trip that I have made since I have been here has been to Brighton. The selling point for Brighton is the beach which is made up entirely of pebbles. There isn't a grain of sand in sight! It took me a while to get used to it but once I did I decided that it is quite a nice place. Brighton Pier is the main focus of the beach and is pretty tacky but kind of fun at the same time. After a pint of beer Hayley decided that it would be a good idea to go on one of the roller coasters - I think I swore about fifty billion times and it wasn't even that scary! The things we do! Speaking of crazy things that people do, there was actually people swimming when we were there - it was soooo cold it was ridiculous and there was more than one person in the water flapping about. Crazy English! Another cool thing at Brighton is the Palace. I can't remember who the guy was the built it but it looks Indian from the outside and Oriental on the inside. He was a bit of a wacko apparently but the palace that he built is wicked. The Museum was also pretty cool - there was some cool displays that had some interesting things on show. One downside to our trip was that our hostel smelt of a combination of beer, cigarettes and salami - hot!
Pic 1) The crazy man's half Indian half Chinese palace
Pic 2) The appealingly tacky Brighton Pier

Fun in Little Italy

I had to include these pics cos it was a) a really fun night and b) Elly was out with us - yeah! Little Italy is a little Italian restaurant in Soho where after a certain time of the night they clear the restaurant and make it into a dance floor which makes for a really good time! One of my clearest memories (the night did end a bit fuzzy) was Elly, Hayley and I screaming Livin' On a Prayer at the top of our lungs. Other classics for the night included crap, I don't even remember! Anyway, they played heaps of cool old songs and fun night was had by all.

Pic 1) Elly and I - don't you just love my 'drunk eyes'. Such a hot look!
Pic 2) Down boy! Hayley gets in on the action with Aaron and James and tries to get Alex out of the action!

Weekend in Oxford

My first trip out of London was to Oxford for a weekend. Hayley and I caught the bus out there(I swear Keira Knightley was on our bus, though I may have just been on drugs!) which was pretty cool. The town itself is really nice and consists mostly of old buildings, colleges and people riding round on those old school bicycles. A highlight was hiring out a little row boat and rowing up a river to the Thames. We were going to hire a 'punt' but the idea of me, standing up, in a really shallow boat, with a really big pole, in a river full of really cold water didn't really sound all that appealing to me! Another great thing was buying yummy eclairs from a French style market - I am still dreaming about that!

Pic 1) On top of the Cairfax (I think!) Tower - it was a pretty sweet view
Pic 2) Row, row, row your boat...

And the shennanigans continue...

I know this is probably a little bit of a waste of space but I thought that this was quite an impressive display of beer drinking endurance. And before you start speed dialling AA, relax folks, I am not quite skilled in the art of beer drinking just yet. This was the effort of a group of us - for those who know Apryl, we hung out with her and some of her mates for the night at a pub named 'The World's End' which really was the end of the world. If anyone has seen Trainspotting, the ladies toilets were reminiscent of the toilet scene from that. They were so bad in fact that I used the Mens instead- not exactly a highlight of my trip here but it has been etched into my memory for all of the (very) wrong reasons. Ewww!

Out and about

The first few weeks of being in London were spent being a complete tourist. I think I spent most of the first few days looking up - there are so many gorgeous buildings here and it is all really different to the architecure that we get in Oz. On average I was walking about 7kms a day, thus temporarily avoiding the Heathrow injection (though, sadly it is beginning to kick in a little now...) and seeing the sights that London has to offer. It really is a huge city, with so many galleries, museums, touristy traps, pubs and restaurants. I think my fave place is probably Hyde Park / Kensington Gardens (they are side by side) which is so stunning at the moment. Oops, focus - so yeah, in the first few weeks of being here I saw some cool things like Westminster Abbey, London Eye, Tower of London, London Bridge, Shakespeares Globe, Kensington Palace, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, London Aquarium, Buckingham Palace, National Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery. I also tried my hand at beer drinking and found out that I am actually alright at it! Yay for beer! Oh, and on another note, the English have a weird obsession with peas - haven't quite figured that one out yet. So, if any of you are over here and order a meal with veggies, don't expect the usual pumpkin, potato and carrots, no, no, you will just get a mountain of peas... hmmm, the English are a little strane methinks!

Pic 1) Me at Trafalgar Square
Pic 2) Hayley and I at Tower of London
Pic 3) Me working on my beer drinking (check out the size of the glass! It's all about the pints!)

The loooonnnnngggggg haul...

Got through Brisbane airport fine and got psyched for the long trip to Seoul. Decided to break the trip up into units (anyone who has seen About A Boy will appreciate this), with one unit being an hour. Food took up half a unit, a movie was two units (bless, the movies!) and ummm, well, that was kind of all there was to do! Stopped in Seoul for the night - walked out of the airport into sub-artic temperatures (it was f'n cold!) and shacked up at the Incheon Hyatt (am in love with the place). Got back on the place for oh, another five billion hours and when we finally arrived at Heathrow, the only question that we got asked was 'Are you together?' - yes that's right folks, in the midst of worldwide terrorist threats and increased airport security, all we got was if we were lesbians. Go figure!

Pic 1) For airplane food, it wasn't all bad (hey, it was a half unit)
Pic 2) Me, standing on a frozen water feature (did I mention it was really, really cold?)

The Queen of Slackness

Yes, I know, I know - I have been here for three months and haven't sent anyone any photos (at least I am not discriminating!). But fear not fine fellows, I have finally got my A into G and am finally going to add some photos to my blog. I have a fair few so I might have to do in stages so you will just have to be a little patient and bear with me. Oh and feel free to email me and send me photos so that I have at least some idea of what is happening back home (yes, I do feel out of the loop). Love you all and enjoy!

The final countdown

And it's the final countdown da na na na... Does anyone else know that bad 80's song or is it just me? Anyway, the time has come for me to say goodbye and venture out into the great unknown. I still don't think that it has really sunk in yet - I guess that it might kick in on the plane. I pity the poor person who will be sitting next to me while I am hyperventilating... I will try and get some photos up on the site as soon as I can so that you can check out what I have been up to. (I am invisioning comments like ...and here is a photo of some rain and clouds and some more rain and some clouds... I think I am over the weather already and I haven't even left Oz yet. Not a good sign!).

Farewell drinksies

How many farewell drinks can one person have before it becomes, well, kind of silly? I had work dinner and drinks on Sunday, more dinner and drinks on Thursday and then some more dinner and drinks and Friday! It's not that I am self absorbed and think that the world wants to say 'bye' to me, I just like eating and drinking (who would have guessed!). Many thanks to all the wonderful friends and family that made the effort to celebrate my imminent departure and my 24th birthday ( I am so old). A BIG thanks to Liz for flying down from Canberra and Cam for coming down from Mackay - you guys are great! A few special mentions go to:

Lise, Beck and Joey - you girls are so beautiful and I am going to miss you so much.

Lou and the boys for rockin' it out on the O'Malleys dance floor- I can't belive we haven't partied earlier.

The fabulous webteam (Captain Copy and Paste, Rebel, Storm and Lawsy), thankyou for being such an awesome crew to work with and for all the funny (and at times ridiculous) goings on in our little office. I hope that you can find someone deserving to replace me.

Sal and Scott - thanks for all of the wonderful drawing classes and philosphical chats. I am going to miss the "Awesome Foursome"!

The Crocoseum Crew - thanks for all of the great times!

And of course my beautiful family for putting up with me stressing out of my head about unimportant crap. Mum and Dad, I hope that you can figure out the whole internet thing anf check my site out!

I love you all and I will miss you! xoxo

My last day at work

After working at the same place for over two years, I have finally finished up work and left the Zoo. It's weird how you to tend to take people and places for granted when you know that you are going to see them everyday. It's only now that I have left that I have realised how much I am going to miss everyone! Who is going to sing to me ("... and the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night...") now? They say that it's the people that you work with that make your job either rock or suck arse and I can safely say that "you guys rock!". Thanks to everyone that has made my two and a bit years at the Zoo such an awesome time. I love you all!
PS- Many thanks to Ben and Dave for doing the bird and wombats photos for me.

Woodford Folk FEstival 2005-2006

I am rather new to this whole blogging thing so a I am going to try and get the hang of it before I leave the country so that I at least have some idea of what I am doing!

Woodford was a wonderful way to see in the New Year so I thought that I would post up some photos of that to get the ball rolling. I think the highlight at this year's folk fest was seeing a massive group of tiara princesses wandering around the festival! It was so great to be in such a fabulous group of people for NYE. I hope that that is an indication of how this year is going to be... Another awesome thing at the festival was seeing Kate, Em and the Transport guys doing their thing. They are such a talented group and it was great to see them rockin' on to packed crowds.